The Family Cookbook Project

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  • FamilyCoombookProject.com Named Best Recipe Newsletter of 2023

    The Family Cookbook Project (www.familycookbookproject.com) has been named the Best Cooking and Recipe Online Newsletter of 2023 by the Web Marketing Association’s 21th annual Internet Advertising Competition Awards.  The Family Cookbook Project creates customized 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, Co-Publisher of the Family Cookbook Project.  “We are proud that our communication efforts have been recognized by the Web Marketing Association with this IAC Award.  Our monthly newsletter is sent to our  cookbook editors to help them get the most out of their cookbook creating experience. We will continue to develop our site and our communication programs 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 149,000 families have started family cookbooks using the website and have entered more than 2.6 million individual recipes.

    The newsletter, Food for Thought, is sent to more than 96,000 editors each month and features ideas on creating a better cookbook, program enhancements, featured recipes from other editors, editor testimonials and famous food quotes.

    Thousands of entries from around the world were adjudicated in 86 industry categories during this year’s competition. Entries were judged on creativity, innovation, impact, design, copy writing, memorability and use of the medium. 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.

    This  is the third year in a row that Family Cookbook Project’s newsletter has been recognized by the Web Marketing Association as Best Cooking and Recipe Online Newsletter.

  • Anatomy of a Great Recipe

    Anatomy of a Great Recipe

    One of the keys to a great family cookbook is to have great recipes that your family and friends have come to love. Here are some simple tips to help you capture the magic of the food you make.

    1. Use catchy titles. Using a catchy title will make your recipe sound more interesting. It is more interesting to people when they see the title “Gooey Triple Chocolate Cake” rather than just “Chocolate Cake”. When you are writing a title for a recipe, try to think of not only what the final dish will be, but what makes it special as well.

    2. Include photos. Using images in your recipes can allow the person reading your cookbook to see what the final dish will look like and give them a guidepost to follow. Next time you make one of your special dishes, snap a quick photo and add it to your recipe the next time you log in.

    3. Be specific with your Ingredients. For many cooks, include a can of crushed tomatoes in your recipe and they know exactly what you mean or maybe not. Tell them to include a 12oz can of crushed tomatoes and everyone will know exactly what your recipe needs.

    4. Use step by step instructions. You might have made this recipe a thousand times, but someone new will need detailed directions for how to do it. Remember to include pan sizes, cooking times, the order that ingredients are added and how to tell when a dish is done. Also adding how many servings a recipe can make will help with meal planning.

    5. Add personal notes. One of the things that make a family cook so important is that it helps to capture the family traditions. Include a note with each recipe about how you first were introduced to the recipe and when it is typically served in your household. It makes the recipe more interesting and more meaningful to later generations.

     

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

  • 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 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 will 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 to 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 the 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 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 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 and Pinterest!

     

  • 6 Way to Enter Your Recipes into a Family Cookbook

    6 Way to Enter Your Recipes into a Family Cookbook

    It’s true, the hardest thing about working with FamilyCookbokProject.com is getting all of our beloved recipes entered into the system so we can create a one of a kind cookbook for family and friends.

    You have several options when you want to enter a recipe into your own recipe book.

    Here are some of my favorite:

    Typing – This is straightforward. You open the Add A Recipe form and use your keyboard to type in the recipe and click on the save button (don’t forget the last part!).

    Other People Typing – One of the features that makes FamilyCookbookProject.com unique is that we make it easy to invite others to contribute recipes to your cookbook so you don’t have to do all of the work. Use the invitation tool and have others submit recipes that you can then edit. It’s a great way to build a family cookbook and bring everyone together.

    Cut and Paste – If you already have many of your recipes in a text format, like in a Word document, you can cut and paste the recipes into the form. This also works when you find a recipe on a website and you’d like to include it in your cookbook.

    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!

    Import a recipe from a website – We have created a tool to import recipes from some websites. However, it does not always work because every website is different in the way it lays out its recipes.

    From your quick start editors menu, click on the Recipe Center button. There you will find a link to “Import Recipes from another website”. This will allow you to take the URL from the recipe page and try to import it into your cookbook. If that does not work, you can cut and paste the ingredients and directions into a new recipe page which is very easy to do.

    Dictate recipes – If you don’t like to type, you can also talk your recipes into text form that can be cut and pasted into the Add A Recipe form. To see how to do this, see the recent blog post How to Dictate a Recipe Into Your Family Cookbook Project.

    Use a photo – One of the most asked questions we get is “How can I scan a recipe and use it in my cookbook?”

    If you have a recipe box or collection of recipes that you would like to scan and use as your recipes in a family cookbook, it can be done. However, a problem with scanned or photographed 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.

    So you have two options:

    You can include the scanned images as photos attached to recipes that you have typed into the system. This preserved the original form of  the recipe card and makes the recipe highly readable.

    Second, you can upload the recipe card image on the Add A Recipe form as the recipe itself and just type the recipe title and contributor name. This saves typing and you get to use the image as the entire recipe. You can add personal notes if you want.

    So however you get your recipes entered into FamilyCookbookProject.com, it is the first step to creating what will certainly be a treasured family heirloom to be passed down to future generations.

     

    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 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 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 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 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 and Pinterest!

  • Food Related Holidays – April 2023

    Food Related Holidays – April 2023

    It seems that every day is a special day for something. Especially when it comes to our favorite (or not so favorite) foods.

    FamilyCookbookProject.com created a list of special food related holidays that you may not be aware of.

    For fun, pick some of your favorites and served them on their national day. Remember to tell us what your favorite day of the month is for March!

    April Food Related National Days

    1 – National Sourdough Bread Day

    2 – National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day

    3 – National Chocolate Mousse Day

    4 – National Chicken Cordon Bleu Day

    5 – National Deep Dish Pizza Day

          National Caramel Day

    National Raisin and Spice Bar Day

    6 – National Burrito Day

    National Caramel Popcorn Day

    7 – National Beer Day

    National Coffee Cake Day

    8 – National Empanada Day

    9 – National Chinese Almond Cookie Day

    10 – National Cinnamon Crescent Day

    11 – National Cheese Fondue Day

    12 – National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

    13 – National Peach Cobbler Day

    14 – National Pecan Day

    15 – National Glazed Spiral Ham Day

    16 – National Eggs Benedict Day

    17 – National Cheeseball Day

    National Crawfish Day

    18 – National Animal Crackers Day

    19 – National Banana Day

    National Garlic Day

    20 – National Cheddar Fries Day

    National Lima Bean Respect Day

    National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day

    21 – National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day

    22 – National Jelly Bean Day

    23 – National Cherry Cheesecake Day

    24 – National Pigs in a Blanket Day

    25 – National Zucchini Bread Day

    26 – Stop Food Waste Day

    National Pretzel Day

    27 – National Gummi Bear Day

    National Devil Dog Day

    National Prime Rib Day

    28 – National Blueberry Pie Day

    29 – National Shrimp Scampi Day

    30 – National Oatmeal Cookie Day

    National Raisin Day

     

     

    Bill Rice is Co-Founder and 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 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 make 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 relieved 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 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 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 and Pinterest!

  • 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 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 will 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 to 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 the 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 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 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 and Pinterest!

  • Multi Cookbook Dashboard Enhanced

    Multi Cookbook Dashboard Enhanced

    For those of you who participate in more than one Family Cookbook Project cookbooks, we’ve just made it easier for you to access all of the projects you are involved in.

    Many cookbook editors are also a contributor on other cookbooks or have started multiple cookbooks themselves. Using the multi cookbook dashboard option in your navigation you now will be able to see not only the cookbooks that you are editor on, but all of the cookbooks that you are contributors on as well.

    If one of your contributors also has her own cookbook, they will be able to log into yours through their multi cookbook dashboard.

    In the familycookbookproject.com app, simply go to the option marked switch cookbooks, and you will see all of the cookbooks that you are associated with.

    Remember, these cookbooks are linked through your email address. If you have different email addresses on different accounts, they will not be linked unless you update the email address in your update your info tab in that cookbook account.

    We are always looking for ways to make familycookbookproject.com the easiest and most user-friendly online cookbook publishing platform available.

    If you have any ideas of how we can make things better, please use the green questions box on each page of the site and send us your suggestion.

  • A Family Reunion Cookbook Brings Families Together

    A Family Reunion Cookbook Brings Families Together

    The Donovan Family Reunion

    Few gatherings are as meaningful and memorable as family reunions. As families grow and people go their own ways, family reunions serve to bring us back together. They’re a chance to recombine, share experiences and renew connections.

    One great idea to make your family reunion truly memorable is to create a family cookbook. Everyone knows the best thing about a family reunion is the food! Everyone brings their favorite dishes and shares stories and food and fun.

    There are two different schools of thought on the best way to create a family reunion cookbook. You be the judge on what is best for your family.

    Reunion Specific Cookbook

    Since reunions take a fair amount of time to plan and often center around a theme, choosing a theme centering on food can be a natural choice. Family members are asked to contribute their favorite recipes to a family cookbook that can be distributed at the event. You set a date and ask everyone to contribute the recipes for the food they will be bringing to the event. The cost of printing the cookbooks is included in the cost of the event and everyone receives one the day of the event. This is also a great way to build buzz for your event!

    Reunion Showcase Cookbook

    The other way families create family cookbooks at family reunions is to use the event to show a sample of what a family cookbook looks like and collect email addresses used to invite contributors.  People will see your excitement and want to participate as well. Find your favorite dishes at the event and ask whoever made them to contribute the recipe to the cookbook. They will be flattered that you asked and look forward to participating.  Set a deadline that will allow you to have your family cookbooks complete so people can give them as gifts for the holidays.

    Some things to consider when creating your reunion cookbook

    During the planning process, many families are looking for a way to communicate effectively via email. Adding lots of people to the sender line of an email list can result in people being left off and not being able to contact specific people or subsets of the list. FamilyCookbookProject.com can help make this easier. Use our Reminder Email Tool and you make it easy to contact some or all of your family members.

    Don’t wait until the last minute. When planning a family reunion cookbook, the event is a fixed date and comes and goes whether your cookbook is ready or not. Now is the time to start working on a family reunion cookbook if your event is in the summer.

    Remember to invite everyone to participate, not only the great cooks! This cookbook is for all the family members so it best to invite everyone to contribute – even if it is only a recipe or two.

    Finally remember family members no longer with us by including their recipes as well. Family cookbooks help to tell the story of our families. Contributors can be not only the present, but from the past as well.

     

     

    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 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 and Pinterest!