The Family Cookbook Project

Blog

  • Love Your Family Cookbook? Help Us Grow by Leaving a Review!

    Love Your Family Cookbook? Help Us Grow by Leaving a Review!

    At Family Cookbook Project, our mission has always been to help families like yours preserve cherished recipes, traditions, and memories through custom cookbooks. To continue spreading the joy of creating these personal keepsakes, we need your help—and it only takes a moment!

    Your voice matters. In today’s digital world, reviews from real customers play a crucial role when others are deciding if Family Cookbook Project is right for them. If you’ve enjoyed creating your own family cookbook with us, we would be incredibly grateful if you could take a few minutes to leave a positive review.

    Here’s why your review is so important:

    • You’re helping others. Many potential users rely on the experiences of real customers when making decisions. Your review could be the encouragement someone needs to start preserving their own family’s food traditions and memories.
    • You’re supporting our growth. Your feedback not only helps others, but it also helps us continue to grow and improve. With each review, we can invest more in offering the tools, features, and support that our community loves.
    • It’s quick and easy. Your review doesn’t have to be long! Simply share what you’ve loved about using Family Cookbook Project and how it’s helped you. Even just a few sentences can make a huge impact.

    We’d love for you to leave a review at any (or all!) of the following places:

    Thank you for being a part of our Family Cookbook Project community and helping us inspire more families to preserve their treasured recipes. Your support means the world to us!

    With heartfelt gratitude,
    Bill Rice & Chip Lowell
    Publishers, Family Cookbook Project

  • Get Answers at the “How To” Center

    Get Answers at the “How To” Center

    FamilyCookbookProject.com answers hundreds of emails a week with basic questions on how to do various aspects of creating a family cookbook. So we came up with the idea to put all of those answers in one place.

    Welcome to the Family Cookbook Project Editor Education Center. Here you will find the answer that age-old question “How do I…”.

    When you don’t know how to do something, start here and get specific instructions on how to accomplish most aspects of creating the perfect family cookbook.

    You will find a link to the How To Center in the black navigation bar on every page of FamilyCookbookProject.com.

     

     

    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!

  • How To Hold A Family Cook-Off

    How To Hold A Family Cook-Off

    Chili is always a family favorite and most families have many chili recipes depending on the branch. A fun event for bringing the family together is to host a chili cook off where everyone brings a crockpot full of chili and a blind tasting is used to determine which chili will win the prize that year.

    Here are some rules and guidelines we at Family Cookbook Project use when our family has a chili cook off.

    Pre-Chili Cook-Off Planning

    • Invite guests to bring their best chili in a slow cooker, hot and ready to serve. Encourage a variety – meatless, spicy, white, or surprise ingredient. Have them bring their recipes as well.
    • Not everyone has to bring chili but make sure you have no more than 10 options for people to try otherwise they will get overloaded and not be able to tell the difference between each participant.
    • Make sure you have enough bowls and spoons or buy disposables so everyone can have a separate spoon for each chili.
    • Make Chili Name Tags with the name of each chili, a rating for heat level and the entry number.
    • Make enough ballots so each guest has a ballot for each chili. The ballot should have entry numbers from 1 to 10, a space where the taster can rank them from 1 to 10 and a third column for notes.

    Chili-Tasting Set-Up

    • Just before the guests arrive, set up a Chili Toppings Bar—offer a variety of chili toppings and “go-withs “. Include shredded cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, olives, bell peppers, sliced jalapenos and sour cream for toppings. You can get these ready the day before. Just cover and refrigerate until needed. Great go-withs include crackers, corn bread, tortillas and corn chips.
    • You may want to invest in several power strips to plug-in the crockpots spread out among among several outlets, so you don’t pop a circuit breaker.
    • Offer a variety of drinks; soft drinks, beer and maybe even a signature cocktail. You can also add a tossed green salad and dessert to round out the meal.

     

    Suggested Rules of the Cook-Off 

    • Keep the name of the cook of each chili secret—as to not throw the vote!
    • Invite your guests to taste a spoonful of each chili and fill out a ballot for their favorite before eating it as a meal. Disposable spoons makes this more sanitary. Have them clean their palate between tastings with a little water or soda cracker.
    • Have guests rate each chili on the ballot. The chili with the most points wins!
    • Announce the maker of each chili and then announce the winner.
    • Award prizes – grand prize, hottest, most creative, or easiest for just a few ideas. Amazon.com has some great chili contest recipes that you’ll find here.
    • Add each of the recipes to your family cookbook. You can even create a stand-a-lone chili cookbook to share with family and friends.

    If in doubt you can always check with the experts at the International Chili Society. They have a whole laundry list of rules and regulations for how a chili cook-off should be run.

    Post-Chili Cook-Off 

    Gather all of the recipes from the event, along with photos of everyone having fun and put together a small Chili cookbook for everyone who attended so that the event can be relived for years to come.

    At the end of the day, you want everyone to have fun and enjoy the food.

     

    Bill Rice love chili is Founder and Co-Publisher of the Family Cookbook Project, the leading online cookbook publisher with a website that helps families and individuals collect, preserve and share food memories by creating their own printed custom cookbooks. He is the author of The Wellfleet Oyster Cookbook and the Cape Cod Cocktail Cookbook (Available on Amazon), both created using FamilyCookbookProject.com. He is also editor of the Donovan Family Cookbook, now it’s third printing and is an avid genealogist tracing his family back to the 1600’s.

    Follow Family Cookbook Project on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest!

  • New Covers Added to Family Cookbook Project

    New Covers Added to Family Cookbook Project

    FamilyCookbookProject.com continually evolves to help our editors create the best custom cookbooks  they can. One of the most important aspects of cookbook design is the cookbook cover. We have just released a series of new cookbook covers and dividers so they are now available to our editors. Here is a quick peek:

     

    Fruit Face
    Plate of Bible
    People Cross
    Open Book
    Kids Knife Fork and Spoon
    Kids Cookie Dough
    Community Hands 2
    Rosary
    School Daze
    Wild Flowers
    Community Blue
    Doves of Peace
    Garden Harvest 2
    Plate of Bible
    Cross of Red
    Religious Parchment
    Sunday School
    Three Crosses 1
    Fundraising Goal

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Bill Rice is Founder and Co-Publisher of the 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 and the Cape Cod Cocktail Cookbook (Available on Amazon), both created using FamilyCookbookProject.com. He is also editor of the Donovan Family Cookbook, now it’s third printing and is an avid genealogist tracing his family back to the 1600’s.

  • Preserving Family Recipes For Future Generations

    Preserving Family Recipes For Future Generations

    A lifetime of feeding our families can generate a wealth of tried and true family recipes. The recipes that everyone loves at holiday gatherings and the every day meals that we used to feed our kids. All of them are special and need to be written down for future generations.

    In years past, our mothers and grandmothers used recipe boxes and index cards to keep track of their recipes if they ever bothered to write them down. Unfortunately if someone wanted a recipe, someone would have to find the recipe card, and hand write a new copy so that recipe can be shared.

    Today, computers and the power of the Internet allow us to create online cookbooks that can be printed and easily shared with friends and family members.

    A family cookbook allows us to choose which recipes were most important to us and tell the story behind the recipe. Which holidays was it used for, how did you get the recipe, who’s favorite recipe was it.

    Recipes are not just a set of instructions, The best recipes tell the story of the food and the family behind it.

    Here are some tips for starting your own family cookbook from family cookbook project.

    Get others involved – Everyone in the family has their favorites, so ask them which recipes they would like included. You can even invite them to contribute and enter those recipes directly into the program to save you time and effort.

    Set a deadline – Everyone is busy and will wait until the last minute to contribute recipes. That is why setting a deadline at least a month into the future is a good idea. That way people have something to shoot for and give you a reason to contact them to remind them that recipes are due.

    Select a cover that stands out – People will judge this cookbook by it’s cover so make sure it reflects your family’s personality. You can include a photo or pick a design that is meaningful to yourself and the family.

    Include photos – Photos make a cookbook come alive. Showing images of family members, past and present, helps put the family in family cookbook.

    Read the recipes – As editor, it is your responsibility to check the recipes for typos and completeness. If a recipes lists an ingredient, make sure it has an amount and is included in the directions as well.

    Print extra copies – Ask all of the family members if they want a cookbook before placing your print order (or give them as gifts for the holidays), but be sure to order a few extra copies. Once people see the physical cookbook, it’s amazing how many additional people will want a copy.

    A family cookbook is a rewarding project that brings a family together and is a reminder of one of the important elements that help bind us together – memories of family meals, the food that was served and the people who made them.

     

    Bill Rice is Founder and 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 and is an avid genealogist tracing his family back to the 1600’s.

    Follow Family Cookbook Project on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and

  • Planning A Bridal Shower? Make A Bridal Shower Cookbook

    Planning A Bridal Shower? Make A Bridal Shower Cookbook

    Here is a great idea next you need to plan a bridal shower for a friend or family member – a bridal cookbook!

    One thing every new bride to be needs is great recipes to feed her family. Both families as well as friends can help get this started by contributing recipes as part of a bridal shower!

    Here’s how to do it:

    When you send out your bridal shower invitations, include a link to your Family Cookbook Project cookbook, use the Invitation Tool and add everyone’s email. This will send everyone a link that will allow them to contribute their recipes. Set a deadline for entering recipes about three weeks from when the invitations are sent. Remember people will also wait until the deadline!

    Get both of the mother’s to contribute the most recipes if possible. This way both the bride and groom with have lots of recipes that they grew up with in their cookbook. Using Family Cookbook Project’s Custom Categories Tool, you can even create a special category for each mom’s recipes.

    As the recipes are being entered, start planning how the cookbook will look.

    Cover – Family Cookbook Project offers several cookbook covers specifically for bridal cookbooks or wedding cookbooks. You also can create a custom cover with the name of the cookbook and a photo of the couple.

    Write an introduction – The best bridal cookbooks will have an introduction written by the individuals giving the bridal shower. An introduction can be used wish the couple well wishes and to talk about the importance of family.

    Add Photos – Photos can help bring your cookbook to life. You can add photos of the lucky couple on top of recipes, or create custom pages to highlight photos of the bride and groom as they were growing up and while they were dating.

    Finally, it is time to print your cookbook. Make sure you give yourself enough time to order your cookbooks and have them printed, at least 3-4 weeks if possible. Be sure to order enough copies for each attendee as well as several extra copies for family members that can not attend the event.

    For the event, make some of the dishes from bridal cookbook and serve them at the event. Include a place card with the dish name and include the page number from the cookbook. Finally, if you are looking for a great wedding favor, try creating a Wedding Cookbook for your family and friends!

     

    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!

  • Help Us With A Review Of Family Cookbook Project

    Help Us With A Review Of Family Cookbook Project

    In the online world, customer reviews are one of the most powerful tools to help people who do not have experience with a product to find out if it might be right for them. Positive reviews can really make a difference in attracting new customer to Family Cookbook Project and we need your help.

    Would you kindly take a moment of your time and leave a positive review for us on the rating services below. This will help us attract new users to our site and allow us to continue to offer expanded services and programing to our existing customers.

     

    Thank you for your support.

     

    Bill Rice and Chip Lowell

    Publishers, Family Cookbook Project

  • Bring Two Families Together With A Wedding Cookbook

    Bring Two Families Together With A Wedding Cookbook

    Here’s an idea for a truly unique wedding gift for a special couple – a printed cookbook filled with the bride and groom’s favorite family recipes and photos. It’s a great way to bring both families together before the wedding, makes a wonderful bridal shower theme, can be used as a wedding favor and gets the new couple cooking with family favorite recipes.

    Here’s how to create your own wedding cookbook:

    It starts with a bridal shower.

    One thing every new bride to be needs is great recipes to feed her family, especially with everyone needing to stay at home so much more these days. Both families as well as friends can help get this started by contributing recipes as part of a bridal shower!

    When you send out your bridal shower invitations, include a link to your FamilyCookbookProject.com cookbook, use the Invitation Tool and add everyone’s email. This will send everyone a link that will allow them to contribute their recipes. Set a deadline for entering recipes about three weeks from when the invitations are sent. Remember people will always wait until the deadline!

    Get both of the mother’s to contribute the most recipes if possible. This way both the bride and groom with have lots of recipes that they grew up with in their cookbook. Using Family Cookbook Project’s Custom Categories Tool, you can even create a special category for each mom’s recipes.

    As the recipes are being entered, start planning how the cookbook will look.

    Select a cover – Family Cookbook Project offers several cookbook covers specifically for bridal cookbooks or wedding cookbooks. You also can create a custom cover with the name of the cookbook and a photo of the couple.

    Write an introduction – The best bridal cookbooks will have an introduction written by the individuals giving the bridal shower. An introduction can be used wish the couple well wishes and to talk about the importance of family.

    Add Photos – Photos can help bring your cookbook to life. You can add photos of the lucky couple on top of recipes, or create custom pages to highlight photos of the bride and groom as they were growing up and while they were dating.

    Print your cookbook – Make sure you give yourself enough time to order your cookbooks and have them printed, at least 3-4 weeks if possible. Be sure to order enough copies for each attendee as well as several extra copies for family members that can not attend the event.

    For the event, make some of the dishes from bridal cookbook and serve them at the event. Include a place card with the dish name and include the page number from the cookbook.

    Finally, if you are looking for a great wedding favor, you can print additional cookbooks and give them to everyone attending the wedding!

     

     

    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. His son Conor was married in 2021. 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!

     

  • Homemade Aioli Makes Every Sandwich Better

    Homemade Aioli Makes Every Sandwich Better

    Ever get a gourmet sandwich at a restaurant and wonder how they made it so flavorful?  How about a basket of fries with a special dipping sauce? We’re talking about the fancy mayo we can’t get enough of – aioli. But what is aioli in the first place?

    What Is Aioli?

    Just like mayonnaise, aioli is an emulsion, a mixture of two ingredients that naturally don’t want to mix and are forced together. The oil never truly combines with the rest of the ingredients, but rather becomes suspended in the liquid after being vigorously whisked in, one drop at a time. In mayo’s case, that means oil and a water-based liquid, like vinegar or lemon juice, plus egg yolk.

    Aioli, which means “garlic oil” in French, is a different story, yet still similar. The traditional condiment, made with olive oil, rather than mayo’s typical canola, is also an emulsion, but as you can imagine, it’s tough to get oil to combine with raw garlic alone. Since this emulsion was prone to breaking, which would leave you with greasy, unappetizing mush, people started to use egg yolk in aioli, too—the ingredient that helps keep the oil suspended.

    With addition of egg yolk, aioli became more similar to mayonnaise. And over time, aioli and mayo basically became interchangeable terms. Aioli today is often just mayonnaise spiked with a lot of garlic, but it can also refer to any specially seasoned mayo.

    While today’s “aioli” may not exactly be true to the original, we’re not complaining—it saves us the elbow grease, plus the flavor can still be just as heavenly – even if you start with store-bought mayonnaise.

    There’s no need to spend your whole day trying to perfect an emulsion. You can simply spruce up homemade or store-bought mayonnaise with garlic, citrus juice and any other ingredients you crave in a creamy, decadent dip, sauce or spread.

    Here’s a list of ingredients you can try and turn your basic mayo into a tasty aioli:

    • Minced raw garlic – The classic.
    • Roasted garlic – Roasting gives the garlic a subtle, buttery, almost caramelized flavor.
    • Sriracha  – This is what is served in most sushi restaurants.
    • Wasabi Cilantro – Another spicy option with an Asian flair
    • Browned Butter and Lemon – Try this on a lobster roll!
    • Rosemary – A wonderfully subtle flavor
    • Roasted Red Pepper – A perfect dip for veggies
    • Sweet Relish – Better known as Tarter Sauce
    • Lemon-Dill – A light and fresh alternative
    • Chimichurri – Left overs from steak night can make a interesting aioli
    • Truffle oil – Perfect for French fries

    For the amounts of how much to use, it is best to work by taste. Add a little, give it a stir and give it a taste. Repeat until it acquires the taste you enjoy.

     

    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!

     

  • How to Host a Chili Cook-off

    How to Host a Chili Cook-off

    Chili is always a family favorite and most families have many chili recipes depending on the branch. A fun event for bringing the family together is to host a chili cook off where everyone brings a crockpot full of chili and a blind tasting is used to determine which chili will win the prize that year.

    Here are some rules and guidelines we at Family Cookbook Project use when our family has a chili cook off.

    Pre-Chili Cook-Off Planning

    • Invite guests to bring their best chili in a slow cooker, hot and ready to serve. Encourage a variety – meatless, spicy, white, or surprise ingredient. Have them bring their recipes as well.
    • Not everyone has to bring chili but make sure you have no more than 10 options for people to try otherwise they will get overloaded and not be able to tell the difference between each participant.
    • Make sure you have enough bowls and spoons or buy disposables so everyone can have a separate spoon for each chili.
    • Make Chili Name Tags with the name of each chili, a rating for heat level and the entry number.
    • Make enough ballots so each guest has a ballot for each chili. The ballot should have entry numbers from 1 to 10, a space where the taster can rank them from 1 to 10 and a third column for notes.

    Chili-Tasting Set-Up

    • Just before the guests arrive, set up a Chili Toppings Bar—offer a variety of chili toppings and “go-withs “. Include shredded cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, olives, bell peppers, sliced jalapenos and sour cream for toppings. You can get these ready the day before. Just cover and refrigerate until needed. Great go-withs include crackers, corn bread, tortillas and corn chips.
    • You may want to invest in several power strips to plug-in the crockpots spread out among among several outlets, so you don’t pop a circuit breaker.
    • Offer a variety of drinks; soft drinks, beer and maybe even a signature cocktail. You can also add a tossed green salad and dessert to round out the meal.

    Suggested Rules of the Cook-Off 

    • Keep the name of the cook of each chili secret—as to not throw the vote!
    • Invite your guests to taste a spoonful of each chili and fill out a ballot for their favorite before eating it as a meal. Disposable spoons makes this more sanitary. Have them clean their palate between tastings with a little water or soda cracker.
    • Have guests rate each chili on the ballot. The chili with the most points wins!
    • Announce the maker of each chili and then announce the winner.
    • Award prizes – grand prize, hottest, most creative, or easiest for just a few ideas. Amazon.com has some great chili contest recipes that you’ll find here.
    • Add each of the recipes to your family cookbook. You can even create a stand-a-lone chili cookbook to share with family and friends.

    If in doubt you can always check with the experts at the International Chili Society. They have a whole laundry list of rules and regulations for how a chili cook-off should be run.

    Post-Chili Cook-Off 

    Gather all of the recipes from the event, along with photos of everyone having fun and put together a small Chili cookbook for everyone who attended so that the event can be relived for years to come.

    At the end of the day, you want everyone to have fun and enjoy the food.

     

    Bill Rice loves Chili and is Publisher of the Family Cookbook Project which helps families and individuals create personalized cookbooks to preserve recipes for future generations. Learn more at FamilyCookbookProject.comyCookbookProject.com