The Family Cookbook Project

Category: What people are saying about Family Cookbook

  • Organize Your Recipes Video

    We just finished up a new video describing our recipe organizing and cookbook creation software at Family Cookbook Project.  Take a look – let us know what you think!  (Plus you can see Chip and Bill from a few years ago…)

    Thanks!

  • Reviews of the Best Cookbook Software Family Cookbook Project

    Reviews of the Best Cookbook Software Family Cookbook Project

    Often when thinking about buying or using a product, folks ask their friends about what they think.  In fact, when we ask how someone found our cookbook software and cookbook printing site, FamilyCookbookProject.com or CookbookFundraiser.com, the most common answer is a friend or family member recommended us.  How about that!  It’s just like the movies – “Is this or that movie any good?” we ask before shelling out our dollars.

    Well, here are some of our most recent comments:

    “I just received my shipment of the Ear, Nose and Throat Associates of South Florida cookbook and they turned out awesome. Everyone is so pleased with them. We would like to possibly place an additional order as we did not order enough.  I knew this was going to happen…”
    –Laura Sternberg, Ear, Nose and Throat Associates of South Florida Family Cookbook

    “I’m really pleased with the cookbooks and can’t wait to give them to family and friends for Christmas. They even arrived early. I have told a few friends about my excellent experience with The Great Family Cookbook Project, and many of them are interested in it too for their own projects. I was able to give your organization rave reviews.”
    –Nancy Mercure, Our Family Cookbook

    “I just wanted to get back to you now that I’ve received the cookbooks. They look great! As you know, I was quite anxious about signing off on the internet printing without something physical in front of me. But, I’m very pleased with how they came out. The picture quality is very good–although I wish I’d made the pictures on the front of the dividers bigger. I’ll be presenting them at our family reunion that will be this Thanksgiving. I think everyone will really enjoy them.  I appreciate your help throughout the process!”
    –Julie Zaideman,  Eat, Drink & Be Merry!

    “Our cookbooks arrived less than two weeks after the order was placed and they are perfect! You make this
    such an easy process. It was a pleasure working with you.”
    –Carole Robinson, The Robinson Family Cookbook

    “Well we received our cookbooks on Monday afternoon, and it’s been a flurry of activity ever since. We’re almost sold out already!! We love your product and thank you so much for running such a great website/printing process! “
    –Robin Fraser, Cookin’ the Books

    “Yea!!! They’re here, they’re here!!  Thank you so much for your great service. The cookbooks came in over a week before I expected them to. The coil bindings are wonderful, no problems with pages binding, they lay flat easily and they allow the pages to fold all the way to the back.  I can’t express how much I appreciate that your website was for real (I’m a very apprehensive person when it comes to the internet.) Everything went so good, almost too good to be true.  This was a big job that you made easy because of the software, your customer service and your understanding of a lady who was freaking out over the project.”
    –Patty Athey, Holden Lutheran Church: Where We Go to Be Fed

    ‘The cookbooks are amazing!  Thank you so much.”
    –Shari Crenshaw, Bayou Secrets

    “Thank you so much!  I just paid by credit card.  Looking forward to receiving the final book!  Your site has been wonderful to use, and my family is already talking about doing a follow-up edition.”
    –Tracey Harrelson, From the Kitchen with Love

    “Hi! I delivered our family cookbooks over the holiday weekend at our family reunion.  Everyone was ecstatic! They loved the cookbooks.  They loved it so much they would like to start another book/add recipes to the website.  I renewed our annual membership in March.  I wondered if I could upgrade to Lifetime status?  Many of our family members use the website directly to pull up recipes when they are cooking.  I should have gotten the lifetime membership in the first place!”
    –Rachel Benjamin, Klick Family Cookbook

    “Let me tell you how great this program is. I was able to scrounge together recipes that have been together in my family for 200 years or more. By publishing this cook book, A Real Southern Comfort, you helped me preserve a great piece of family history. This cook book saved a lot of what my family was made up of. In this day and time of fast foods and microwave cooking it would be easy to let all this family history slide by and be forgotten. But not now, not anymore. We have sealed up it’s place for generations to come. It is written and will continue for eons to go. This is no small matter. Thank you for all you have done.”
    –Mike Wallace, A Real Southern Comfort

    Want to read more?  …read more about what our editors are saying

  • It’s Halloween time! Remember to add fun tricks and treats to your family cookbook.

    It’s Halloween time! Remember to add fun tricks and treats to your family cookbook.

    As we prepare for the holiday season, many family cookbook editors are working to finalize their projects in order to give as gifts this year. Cookbooks must be submitted for printing before the deadline of Thursday, November 4th to receive your cookbooks by Thanksgiving. Tuesday, November 30th is the deadline to guarantee delivery without expedited shipping before the Christmas holiday.

    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 of November 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.

    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.


    Family Cookbook Showcase: OurCookbooks.com
    Our new website to help our editors sell their cookbooks online, Family Cookbook Showcase at OurCookbooks.com, is ready to go. Whether you are using your cookbook as a fundraiser or just have a few extra copies that are taking up space, we will make it easy for you to make them available.

    If you already have had you cookbook printed, please go to your editor account and click on the “Publishing Tools>Sell Your Cookbook Settings” link. Here you can enter some basic information and have visitors order cookbooks directly from you. When all of your cookbooks are sold, simply come back and turn off the free listing. It’s our way of helping you to get the most for your cookbook dollar.

    If you have not yet printed your cookbook, it will be made available to you after your order has been sent to print.

    The Family Cookbook Showcase is part of a more comprehensive cookbook marketing package that is being put together to help editors sell their cookbooks.

    Featured recipe from the database

    The Great Family Cookbook Project has a huge amount of public recipes in the system thanks to you! If you need a fun recipe idea that’s not in your own cookbook, go to our home page and use the search function to see what’s available – lots of good eats!

    Here is a recipe we tried recently for a fun party:

    This recipe for Halloween Party Punch, by Micki Clark, is from The Clark Family Cookbook. Search for more great recipes here from over 250,000 in our family cookbooks!

    Halloween Party Punch Recipe

    Contributor:
    Micki Clark

    Category:
    Appetizers & Beverages

    Ingredients:
    1 3oz. pkg orange gelatin
    2 c. boiling water
    1 6oz can orange juice concentrate
    1 46 oz. can unsweetened pineapple juice
    1 qrt. ginger ale

    Directions:
    Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

    Mix orange juice with three cans of water and add to gelatin mixture.

    Add pineapple juice and chill.

    Add ginger ale just before serving. Makes 30 1/2 cup servings

    Tips to Ease the Holiday Hustle

    (NewsUSA) – The holidays are supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but they may also be the busiest. As the guest list grows, so does the grocery list, not to mention the piles of laundry and dirty dishes.

    But there’s no need to be a Grinch. Turn on the holiday cheer by taking advantage of some simple tips from the experts in Whirlpool brand’s test kitchens:
    ·         Prepare ahead. Over-estimate the number of guests expected to attend, and bring full recipes to the grocery store to make sure every ingredient makes it home. This can help you avoid being a plate short or having to dig out old frosting for the last batch of cookies.
    ·         Make sure the refrigerator can handle the shopping list. French-door refrigerators offer wide shelf space to keep large cakes and deli trays fresh leading up to the big holiday meal. A side-by-side refrigerator may fit the bill if fresh ingredients typically fill the shopping cart.
    ·         Make it a team effort. Kids can help wash potatoes or arrange platters, and everyone can help clean up. Also, keeping recipes handy in plastic sleeves ensures everyone is on the same page.
    ·         Put appliances to work for you. Convection cooking allows you to bake potatoes and roast turkeys much faster than a traditional oven, while a double oven range can cook two different meals at once, toast crusty breads or keep one dish warm.
    “Holiday cooks no longer have to play musical pans when trying to broil steaks and warm rolls at the same time, thanks to new double-oven ranges,” said Monica Teague, senior manager, brand experience, Whirlpool. “In addition, knowing how to properly load the dishwasher can ease clean-up once everyone is stuffed. Greasy pots and pans go on the bottom rack face-down or at a slight angle for optimal cleaning, and delicate stemware stay up top, where water pressure is not as strong.” 
    ·         Don’t overlook laundry as guests shuffle in and out. Pre-sorting clothes into designated baskets for lights, darks and whites can streamline the process, while some of latest features enable consumers to do laundry at times that fit their hectic holiday schedule.
    Fit in a quick nap — and a load of laundry — before the guests arrive. The holiday season will feel more “Hava Nagila” than “Bah, Humbug.”
    For more information, visit www.whirlpool.com. 
    Editors Ideas – how to keep your contributors motivated

    The holidays are here. Remember, it may take a full 3 weeks to get your cookbooks at this time of year – so start today! When you do get together in the coming weeks, bring a printed recipe or two from your cookbook and hand them out. Let folks know that you plan to print the book in November or December – and get all their email addresses so you can add them to your book. Have fun!

    What they are saying

    “I LOVE the website…it is so easy to use and the e-blast feature has made managing this project a breeze!”
    –Susie Dvorak, The Kadavy Family Cookbook
    Famous Quotation

    “Non-cooks think it’s silly to invest two hours’ work in two minutes’ enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.”
    Julia Child (1912 – 2004)

  • Comments about a school fundraising cookbook

    Jennifer recently emailed the Family Cookbook Project to accept the cost quote we sent her and move her school fundraising cookbook into production. Here is what she said:

    “What a terrific website you have set up. You have taken a potentially big task and made it easy, easy. We are going to have a pot luck at the end of the school year to taste many of the recipes. : ) We are also using the children’s art projects as dividers, so [the quote] sounds like a winner.”

  • Elaine Dacke says…

    I have to again say, I am so excited about your cookbook program! I have been looking for at about 5 years for software to purchase or use that would allow me to do a project such as this for my own family. Because I use computers on a day to day basis, I know the possibilities, and yet www.familycookbookproject.com is the only one that provides all the opportunities I had in mind. Thank you for making my personal dream come true! I have a very long way to go before I can finish what I have started, but it certainly looks do-able at this point. I told my sister about my project and got her excited as well. She too is seriously considering the same.

  • Jennifer and Family says….

    LOVE the cookbook!! My dad gave it to me for Christmas. I saw some great recipes
    I’ll be making for New Year’s and saw some I was haunted with as a child-Mince-dad
    loved it so much we ate it at least twice a week. Maybe I’ll have something to add to
    the next book. Thanks for all your hard work www.familycookbookproject.com.

  • Next Cookbook Project

    I received my cookbooks yesterday. I’m so
    excited-they turned out wonderful! Thank you. My
    next project is to take the personalizations out of
    this cookbook, have it re-published and try to sell
    it.

    Thanks again-you made my Christmas. The cookbooks
    look very professional.

    Gayle

  • Holidays are the Best Time to Start a Family Cookbook

    To most of us, the year-end holidays are a time of family, friends and a lot of food. While these times can be hectic with all of the running around that needs to be done, it is also the best time to start a family cookbook project says one expert.

    “Many of the family holiday traditions start in the kitchen and center around the meals we serve our family and guests at this time of the year, says William Rice, Founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project. “What better way to celebrate our family food traditions than to preserve them for future generations in a family cookbook. There is no better time to start planning a family cookbook than over a wonderful meal during the holidays”.

    A successful family cookbook needs at least one dedicated individual to lead the project as editor. This person gets the project off the ground and invites family members to contribute recipes. Once a labor intensive task, now families are using the Internet to simplify the project. “A website, such as www.familycookbookproject.com, can provide step by step instructions and tools to help the family member serving as cookbook editor to contact others and encourage them to enter their favorite recipes directly into the online system,” says Rice “The editor then simply reviews and edits the recipes, selects printing options, and sends the cookbook to be printed. The finished printed cookbooks are received in a few weeks time and can be enjoyed and preserved forever.”

    Here are some tips from Familycookbookproject.com to help make your family’s personalized cookbook a success:

    Start talking about the project over dinner – Enjoying the food and dishes we love while being asked to contribute recipes will make the value of the project more real and worthwhile.

    Have a sign up list for those who want to participate – Get everyone’s telephone number and email address in one place. This will help when it is time to be in contact with them over the project.

    Pass out recipe forms after the meal – Having printed recipe forms lets people know what they need to provide and shows them how little work contributing will be.

    Invite everyone to participate     – Don’t just invite the family cooks. Everyone has at least one recipe that they can contribute to the cookbook. Use email to invite and stay in touch with contributors. Let them see what others have submitted to encourage them to keep adding their best recipes.

    Set a deadline – Set a deadline one or two month in the future to have all of your recipes submitted. Most people work better if they know they face a hard deadline. If you don’t have enough recipes at the deadline, you can always extend it.

    Keep in touch – After the holidays, keep in touch with everyone via email. Send regular updates and let then know who is participating and who is not. Set a goal to have every family member contribute at least one recipe so they can be listed in the list of contributors.

    Consider using a Website, like Familycookbookproject.com, to help organize your family cookbook. Here are just some of the benefits of www.FamilyCookbookProject.com:

    – Editors can send contributors an email to invite them to participate in the family cookbook. The site also makes it easy to send regular updates by email to some or all of the contributors.

    – Allows individuals to enter their recipes directly into the online family cookbook so it does not fall entirely on the editor.

    – Provides an easy way to share recipes online. Contributors have access to everyone’s recipes even before the final family cookbook is printed.

    – Provides many options for recipe layout and cover selections or allows you to create your own cover.

    Family cookbooks are an important way to preserve our mealtime traditions for future generations. With the passing of our loved ones comes the loss of treasured food traditions. A family cookbook ensures that the recipes from one generation can be passed on to the next as a treasured family heirloom. Once the recipes are preserved online, they can be shared with other family members by email, printed individual and included in your own professionally printed cookbook.

    For more information on how your family can make a family cookbook, go to www.familycookbookproject.com.