The Family Cookbook Project

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  • How To Create A Multi-Part Recipe

    How To Create A Multi-Part Recipe

    Have you ever had a cake recipe that really needed a specific frosting? Or a meat recipe that required a special sauce? Wouldn’t it be great if a a recipe could have sub recipes attached to keep them together?

    Many of our editors have asked for the ability to have multiple sections or steps in recipes. We like to listen and have added it! Now you can have up to 5 “sub” recipes or steps within a recipe, each with its own set of ingredients and directions. Example? You have Carrot Cake and you want a section for the “Cake” with its ingredients and directions, then “Cream Cheese Frosting” with another set of ingredients and directions.

    To use this feature, simply go to Add Recipe or Edit an existing recipe. First check the box for “Show subtitle and make a multi-part recipe” right under the contributor field. This will add a field for sub-recipe title.

    Using our example above, here is where you would add your carrot cake ingredients and directions.

    Next, click on the green button to “Add new sub recipe”. This will add fields for a second set of sub recipe title, ingredients and directions for your Cream Cheese Frosting.

    You can add up to five sub recipes for your overall recipe.

    When you are done, make sure to click on the green button on the bottom of the page to save your recipe before moving on to your next recipe.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Meet the Guys Behind Family Cookbook Project

    Meet the Guys Behind Family Cookbook Project

    Family Cookbook Project launched 16 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 16 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 is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Our Food Genealogy

    Our Food Genealogy

     

    Family is very important to me. I have been actively working on my family tree and connecting with lost relatives for almost 3 decades. Genealogy is a fascinating past time and has and has only gotten easier using the power of the Internet to track down historic records without even leaving your home.

    However, genealogy is more than just finding peoples names and the dates they were born and died. It’s about learning a little about their lives, what they did for a living and helping their memories come alive.

    The power of the Internet has also made it easy to save your cherished recipes for future generations. The food we grew up with is always very special to us and if no one remembers how to make something, the recipe dies.

    My mother had her mother’s old recipe box and in it was a recipe for shortbread that was from my Great-Grandmother May Ann McDougall Peatie who was born in Scotland in 1883. This recipe was lost to our family for many years but is now part of my family cookbook so everyone can enjoy these traditional Scottish shortbread cookies.

    Family Cookbook Project was created specifically to help preserve these family treasures. It helps families collaborate together and gather recipes from many sources and put them in a single printed cookbook.

    Preserving recipes and memories for future generations – that’s our mission.

    Creating a family cookbook is easy with Family Cookbook Project. If you have not done so already, get started today with your own personalized cookbook at www.FamilyCookbookProject.com.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Win $2,500 For Your Recipe Using Sun Dried Tomatoes

    Win $2,500 For Your Recipe Using Sun Dried Tomatoes

    2022 MOONEY FARMS RECIPE CONTEST

    Create a winning recipe including one (1) or more of Mooney Farms Bella Sun Luci Sun Dried Tomato Products.

    Initial Judging – Initial Recipe judging will be done by a qualified panel of judges and will consider the following criteria: likely taste, creativity/originality, presentation and ease of preparation.

    Final Judging – The top ten Recipes in each Recipe category will then be prepared and judged by a qualified panel of judges and assigned points based on the following criteria and point system
    taste (1 to 30 points)
    creativity (1 to 25 points)
    originality (1 to 20 points)
    appearance (1 to 15 points)
    ease of preparation (1 to 10 points).

    The highest scoring Finalist will be declared the Grand Prize winner. In the event of a tie, the entry with the higher score first in the taste category and then in the creativity/originality category will be declared the Grand Prize winner. If a tie continues, the tied entries will be re-judged by a new judge using the original criteria.

    The decisions of the judges will be final and binding in all matters relating to the Contest. Winners will be announced on or about September 1.

    Entry Deadline: July 1, 2022

    How To Enter

    Contest Rules

    Grand Prize – $2,500.00/Cash
    2nd Place – $500.00/Cash
    3rd Place – Mooney Farms Gourmet Gift Basket

  • 600 BBQ Recipes

    600 BBQ Recipes

    So we thought, wouldn’t be cool to pick a category and show all  the recipes titles with links to the recipes.

    so we did. The first one was Pies.

    Here are 600 BBQ recipes for you to enjoy.

    I bet there will be a lot of grilling and smoking this weekend! I know I will!

     

    Bill Rice loves to grill and smoke meat and seafood and is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

     

  • New Keyword Index Now Available

    New Keyword Index Now Available

    FamilyCookbookProject.com recently introduced a new set of index pages which are based on keywords that can be added to recipes.

    Previously, indexes were available for lists of recipes to appear in the back of your cookbook sorted by combinations of recipe title and contributor. Now, you can add specific keywords to your recipes and have an index that lists the recipes by that keyword.

    • Index by Index Terms only with Recipe Titles
    • Index by Recipe Titles and Index Terms Alphabetically

    For example, I am working on a cocktail cookbook for my family. I added the ingredients to the keyword field separated by commas (page 65 above). This allowed me to create a cookbook that showed all of the recipes that contained that specific ingredient. The other option is page 68. This shows the recipes and keywords followed by the pages on which they appear.

    When adding a new recipe, you’ll find a new field for keywords that will be used to generate this index.

    For your existing recipes you need to edit them and add the information to the keyword field.

  • Preserving Cherished Food Memories with a Family Cookbook

    Preserving Cherished Food Memories with a Family Cookbook

    Back when I was in my youth, I loved my Gram Helen’s cooking. She made thing that my mother did not. However, when she passed in 1993, most of her recipes went with her. I can still remember her meatloaf with a can of Cream of Mushroom soup on it, but for the life of me it never comes out the way I remember when she made it.

    So a decade later, my family and I were sitting around a table and decided to create a family cookbooks so all of the recipes we loved would be available to every member of the family today and more importantly, preserved for future generations. Since my family was all over the country, I had my high school friend help me create a website that became the great Family Cookbook Project.

    FamilyCookbookProject.com makes it easy to create a printed personal cookbook filled with your own recipes. Our program has helped thousands of individuals organize recipes, provide professionally designed covers and recipe layouts and automatically creates a table of contents and index of recipes for beautiful printed cookbooks. We make it easy and fun to create your own cookbook.

    My mom with our family cookbook she created.

    Family Cookbooks help preserve family memories and food traditions for future generations. There is nothing like seeing a handwritten recipe from a family member that you remember or even never met, but who’s recipe is still used today.

    Here are some tips from Family Cookbook Project:

    • Often collection of recipes in the form of a recipe box, magazine and newspaper clippings, or cookbooks with pages marked is a great place to start creating your cookbook.
    • For those recipes that you never wrote down because you made them so many times you knew it by memory, make it again and this time write it down step by step as you make it.
    • Measure the ingredients! Even if you use a “handful” of something, take a handful and put it into a measuring cup and write it down before throwing it into the pot.
    • Remember to write personal notes about why this recipe was important, who gave it to you or any special memories of meals that it was served. My mothers Chicken Supreme will always remind me of her serving at the rehearsal dinner for my wedding.
    • Including lots of photos is also a great way to make your special cookbook and help preserve the special memories.

    Remember, behind every recipe you love is a story you want to share.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • How To Get Your Cookbook Ready To Print

    How To Get Your Cookbook Ready To Print

    So you’ve collected your recipes, entered them in the cookbook, written your introduction and made all of you are design selections. Now you’re ready to print your cookbook.

    Lock Your Cookbook

    The first step in getting ready to publish a cookbook is to go to the publishing center in your editors account and lock your cookbook. There are three levels of luck in your cookbook:

    • Level one locks contributors for making changes. Once you start editing, you don’t want people adding new recipes or changing things that you’ve already edited. Checking this box prevents this.
    • Level two stops all changes by contributors.
    • Level three locks the cookbook completely and now you’re ready to submit to print.

    Once you locked your cookbook from contributor changes now is the time to read everything and check for typos

    Proofread your introduction

    Print out your narrative and give it to someone else to read. Often it is difficult to proofread your own work and allowing someone else to do it will find things that you would mess.

    Review all of the recipes

    Look for ingredients that are listed but not included in the directions or ingredients in the indirect and directions that are not included in the ingredients list.

    Make sure the directions seem complete.

    Check the layout

    Go to the box that says preview your cookbook in the black navigation bar in your editors account. Here you can either download a PDF of your cookbook or use our 3-D preview tool.

    Here you are checking for how pages break. If you find a page with only a word or two, maybe you can shorten version directions to make that recipe just a little shorter.

    The changes you make here will determine how your cookbook will be printed. However it looks in your final PDF preview, is how it will look when your cookbook is printed.

    Place your order

    Now that your cookbook looks exactly the way you want it, it’s time to order.

    On the ordering page you’ll see the number of recipes you’ve entered, and the number of pages in your cookbook. This is what will determine the cost of your cookbook along with the number of color photos.

    Remember that the more copies of your cookbook you are order, the less the price per book will be. This is because the set up charges are spread out over more copies of the cookbook.

    Once you’ve calculated your price, you need to enter your shipping address and click submit. This places your order with our publishing system. You then will be directed to a link that will allow you to pay online or you can send a check drawn on a US bank for payment.

    One frequent question is can cookbooks be sent to more than one address. Currently you would need to place an order for each delivery address.

    Once you’ve placed your order you can expect your cookbooks to arrive in 2 to 3 weeks. However during our busiest times of the year, it could take longer. if you want your cookbooks in time for Christmas, the deadline for ordering is November 30, however do not wait until the last minute if you can.

     

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

     

  • One Happy Cookbook Editor

    One Happy Cookbook Editor

    We love to get feedback and comments from our FamilyCookbookProject.com editors when they finally receive the printed cookbook that they have worked on for so long.

    Here is another comment we recently received from Karen in Iowa:

    Thank you so much for publishing my family cookbook.   It was so much fun typing up my mother and mother-in-law’s recipes and giving them to my family as a Christmas present this past year.  Your company was so easy to work with and the website was great!   Very self-explanatory and simple to navigate. Thank you for this opportunity!

    Thank you for sharing Karen!

     

     

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Editor Account verses Contributor Account

    Editor Account verses Contributor Account

    If you invite contributors to submit recipes, you can see their accounts on the Communion Center. You can edit their information by clicking on their name, see when they last logged in, how many recipes they have added and even log in to their account.

    A contributor sees the “Full homepage” when they log in. They see a welcome message and photo, a table of contents of recipes, a list of contributors, and a list of newest recipes.

    Contributors do not see any of the design, communication or publishing tools because only the editor can do those functions.  All a contributor can do is submit recipes and edit those recipes they have submitted.

    As the editor of the cookbook, only  you can:

    • Invite any contributors
    • Communication with contributions as a group or individually
    • Control all design aspects of the cookbook including cover, dividers, and recipe layouts
    • Write the introduction and any custom pages
    • Edit all of the recipes, not just your own
    • Order printed copies of your cookbook

    One thing you can do as editor to make your contributor’s accounts more welcoming is to upload a fun family photo and a welcome message for the page. In the Account Center, you will find a link to Add/Edit Website Intro and Photo.

    Sometimes editors would like a contributor to have access to all of the editor tools and serve as a second editor. However, we have designed Family Cookbook Project to have a single editor. As editor you can give your username and password to a trusted contributor and allow them access to your account, if you wish.

    The easiest way to see exactly what your contributors see when they log in is to log into there account from the list of contributors. This way you can make sure everything is exactly how you want it.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!