The Family Cookbook Project

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  • 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

  • Time for Holiday Cookbooks is Around the Corner

    Time for Holiday Cookbooks is Around the Corner

    The holidays are just around the corner and this is also the busiest time of the year for cookbook printers. If you are looking to have your family cookbook printed in time for the holidays, the deadline to order your cookbook is Tuesday, November 30th. Cookbooks are printed on a first come, first served basis, so the sooner you place your order, the better we all will be. We will still accept orders after the deadline, but you may need expedited shipping.

    This looming deadline is also a great way to motivate your contributors to get moving. Use the Reminder Tool in your Editor Toolkit to send an email to all of your contributors and let them know it’s now or never.
    Here is the text of an email Bill just sent to his family that you can use:
    I want to thank everyone who has already contributed recipes for the Second Edition Donovan Cookbook. We are getting ready to go to print in time for Christmas so I need everyone to enter as many recipes as the can before our final deadline date of November 25th.
    Don’t be left out of what is sure to be a new family heirloom. Make sure your name is included in the list of contributors by logging in with the information below and adding a few more recipes to our already impressive collection.
    After November 25th the cookbook will be locked and no additional recipes will be accepted, so don’t delay – get online and enter them today.
    Bill Rice
    Editor
    Donovan Family Cookbook, second edition

    We have also launched a number of improvements for FamilyCookbookProject.com and CookbookFundraiser.com!

    Be sure to check out:

    • Under Photo tools new border styles and justification types
      • Lines
      • Drop shadows
      • Photo album style corners
    • Under Recipe Layouts, we’ve added free White Space Filler packages:
      • Food Items
      • Kitchen Items
      • Four different familiar quotations!

    These new tools make Family Cookbook Project the easiest way to create a personal cookbook on the Internet.
     

    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:

    This recipe for Fantastic Lasagna, by Heather Ayres, is from Our Family Cookbook. Search for more great recipes here from over 250,000 in our family cookbooks!

    Fantastic Lasagna Recipe

    Contributor:
    Heather Ayres

    Category:
    Main Courses: Seafood, Poultry, Pasta and Casseroles

    Ethnicity (if any):
    Italian

    Ingredients:
    1 lb. ground beef (can also use ground turkey or ground chicken)
    3 c. spaghetti sauce of your choice
    1 8oz. can of tomato sauce
    3 c. ricotta cheese
    1 egg slightly beaten
    1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
    1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
    1 pkg. oven ready lasagna noodles
    16 ozs. (4 c.) shredded mozzarella
    1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
    1 tsp. salt
    1 tsp. pepper

    Directions:
    Heat oven to 375ºF. Cook meat in skillet and drain fat. Put in a bowl and add spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce. Set aside. In another bowl stir together ricotta cheese, egg, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. In a 13x9x2 in. baking dish place 3/4 c. meat and sauce mixture. Cover the bottom and lay 3 pieces lasagna strips over sauce. Leave space from sides and each other as they will tend to expand slightly when cooked. Spread 3/4 c. ricotta cheese mixture over noodles. Then spread 3/4 c. sauce mixture over that. Sprinkle 1 c. mozzarella cheese over meat mixture. Repeat layering 1-2 more times. On the top of last layer sprinkle remaining cheese and Parmesan on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 min. After 30 min. remove the foil and bake 10-15 more minutes. Let stand 5 min. before serving.

    Number Of Servings:
    Small squares 12 or large squares 6

    Preparation Time:
    35 min.
    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!

    Famous Quotations


    Always remember: If you’re alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb,
    you can always just pick it up. Who’s going to know?
    –Julia Child

    I went to a restaurant that serves ‘breakfast at any time’.
    So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.
    –Steven Wright

  • Thanksgiving Cookbook Printing Deadine is November 4th

    Thanksgiving Cookbook Printing Deadine is November 4th

    Thanksgiving is coming in just a few short weeks.  If you are planning to have your family cookbook or fund raising cookbook ready for Thanksgiving, our order deadline is Thursday, November 4th.  We may accept a few orders after that, but you will need to pay expedited shipping to receive them in time for this yummy holiday.

    Make sure to set your deadline for recipe entry a day or two ahead of the 4th, so you as editor have time to go through your book and make sure all is perfect.  If you need any questions answered, don’t hesitate to contact us at Family Cookbook Project or Cookbook Fundraiser.

    By the way, have a Happy Halloween!

  • 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)
  • New Cookbook Cover Templates Added!

    New Cookbook Cover Templates Added!

    We just added four brand new cookbook cover template for you to choose from for your family or fund raising cookbook.  We are in the process of adding new covers and dividers every couple weeks.  Keep checking the Family Cookbook Blog or login to your cookbook site and see what’s new!

    Here they are:

    Loving Spoonful

    Recipe Tree

    Wholesome Pie

    Chocolate Pie
  • Time to Get on the Cookbook Bus – Back to School!

    Time to Get on the Cookbook Bus – Back to School!

    It’s September and Back to School time.  Time to get “everyone on the bus” and helping on your cookbook at FamilyCookbookProject.com or CookbookFundraiser.com.

    Well, Summer 2010 has come and gone.  Hope you had a great one!  Fall started yesterday – and it’s feeling like it with school back in session.  So – time to get everyone busy adding and trying yummy recipes to your family or group cookbook.

    Believe it or not, the holiday season is almost upon us. Since family cookbooks make a wonderful gift, it’s no wonder why that is by far our busiest time of the year.

     
    Tips for Making a Holiday Deadline

    In order to make sure you receive your cookbooks in time for sharing with your friends and family for the holidays, here are some tips from Family Cookbook Project.

    • Use the Reminder Tool to email contributors to enter in their best recipes so they can look forward to cookbook for the holidays.
    • Set a deadline so everyone knows when their recipes must be submitted by – and make sure you leave a few days for those contributors that will want to add a recipe or two after the deadline!
    • You do not have to wait until your recipe collection is completed to start working with the Publishing Tool. Pick a cover from our professionally designed assortment or design your own. Select your layout type face and dividers – just remember to click the save button and the system will remember your selection.
    • Don’t wait until the last minute. While our digital printing allows for some of the fastest turn-a-round times in the industry, printing is done on a first come first served basis. We are expecting and are prepared for a lot of editors to have their cookbooks printed in October and November. You don’t want to be the last in line – so place your order early!

    Right now is the perfect time to get everyone involved – and print your book for the holidays!

    Time to Reorder More Cookbooks?

    Need extra cookbooks for holiday gift giving? If you were planning to print more copies of that fabulous cookbook you created, now is the time to place that order!

  • Best of Family Cookbook Project Cookbook

    Best of Family Cookbook Project Cookbook

    Families from all across the United States contributed their cherished recipes – from every day favorites to those brought out only for special gatherings. Now they are available in a new Cookbook from the Family Cookbook Project.

    The Family Cookbook Project was started in 2003 to help families create personalized cookbooks to help preserve those beloved recipes to be handed down for generations. This year, the editors selected from more than a quarter million recipes to come up with The Best of the Family Cookbook Project Cookbook (ISBN 978-0-9820243-0-0 Price 19.95), available at Amazon.com or www.BestCookbookProject.com.

    “These fantastic recipes were hand selected by the editors of more than 120 family cookbooks as their best,” says Bill Rice, Co-Publisher of the Family Cookbook Project. “Some are simple everyday favorites from all around the country and some are the prized “family get-together” show stoppers. All of them are beloved by the families that submitted them.”

    Every family has treasured recipes, beloved as much for the memories they evoke, as it is for the taste. Often those recipes have been handed down orally through generations, or squirreled away on index cards or scraps of paper. A family cookbook is a way to gather, organize and share this wealth of family culinary favorites.

    The Best of the Family Cookbook Project Cookbook is 8 1/2×11 in size and has 218 pages. It contains full color photos of some of the recipes. 354 recipes are divided intro eight categories: Appetizers & Beverages, Bread and Muffins, Soups, Stews, Salads and Sauces, Main Courses: Beef, Pork and Lamb, Main Courses: Seafood, Poultry, Pasta and Casseroles, Vegetables and Vegetarian Dishes, Desserts, Pies, Cakes and Cookies and Miscellaneous.

    Some of the recipes include: Hummingbird Cake from The Snyder/Johnson Family Cookbook Project, Chicken Tortellini Chowder from Lewis Girl’s Lucky Duck Cookbook, Sausage, Shrimp and Zucchini Casserole from La Famiglia Campano Cookbook, Best Ever Lemon Scones from Joy of the Repast Cookbook, Finger Licken Hawaiian Chicken from Home Sweet Home Recipes and Ginny’s Award Winning Irish Soda Bread from The New Donovan Family Cookbook Volume II.

    The back of the Best of the Family Cookbook Project Cookbook contains indexes by both category and by contributor. It was created using the same online program thousands have used to create their own personalized cookbooks.

    Winner if the 2009 Web Marketing Association Family Standard of Excellence WebAward, the Family Cookbook Project Website was started as a project in 2003 to help one family collect recipes and organize a family cookbook. Overwhelming feedback from those who used the website led to its continued development and public launch. Currently, more than 12,400 individuals, families and groups have started personalized cookbooks using the website and have contributed more than 267,000 individual recipes to the database.

    “Personalized cookbooks have been around since the 1940s, however the process of collecting and organizing recipes has always been a labor intensive project for the cookbook editor,” says Chip Lowell, Co-Publisher of the Family Cookbook Project. “Our site brings this process into the Internet age and now it’s easy and cost effective to have your very own cookbook printed. The Family Cookbook Project website provides step by step instructions and tools to help cookbook editors invite others to participate and allow them to enter their favorite recipes directly into the online system. The editor then simply reviews and edits the recipes, selects printing options, and sends the cookbook to be printed. The finished printed cookbooks are then received by the editor in a few weeks time”.

    The Best of the Family Cookbook Project Cookbook (ISBN 978-0-9820243-0-0 Price 19.95), available at Amazon.com or www.BestCookbookProject.com .

    About the Family Cookbook Project

    The Family Cookbook Project is dedicated to helping individuals and families collect and preserve the time-honored recipes that are so important to our family traditions. The website at www.familycookbookproject.com provides step-by-step instructions and online tools to create a valuable family heirloom. Personalized cookbooks are also used by schools and church groups as important fundraisers. Groups looking to create cookbooks for fundraising efforts, can also check out www.cookbookfundraiser.com.

  • A New Look for Cookbook Fundraiser!

    Our fund raising customers have requested a fresher, easier look to our fund raising site, CookbookFundraiser.com – and now it’s officially ready! A much cleaner design allows for easier adding of recipes, editing your cookbook and getting through the editorial process. Enjoy!

    CookbookFundraiser.com

  • Family and Fundraising Cookbook Videos

    We are launching a new series of videos on how easy it is to create family cookbooks and fundraising cookbooks! Our first two are fun starter videos for our home pages. Check these out:

    Family Cookbook Video on YouTube and Cookbook Fundraiser Video on YouTube

    Watch for more soon!

  • Family Cookbook Project Wins WebAward For FamilyCookbookProject.com

    The Family Cookbook Project has won both a Publishing Standard of Excellence and a Family Standard of Excellence in the Web Marketing Association’s 13th annual WebAward Competition for Web site development. The Family Cookbook Project creates personalized cookbooks for individuals, families, church groups and schools. This is the fifth consecutive year that Family Cookbook Project has been recognized for their Website excellence.

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

    The Family Cookbook Project Website was started as a project in 2003 to help one family collect and organize a family cookbook. Overwhelming feedback from those who used the website led to its continued development and public launch. Currently, more than 12,400 groups have started family cookbooks using the website and have entered more than 267,000 individual recipes.

    More than 2,000 sites from 45 countries were adjudicated in 96 industry categories during this year’s WebAward competition. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology. The competition was judged by a team of independent Internet professionals representing a variety of relevant disciplines of Web site development. Judges included members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, creative directors, corporate marketing executives, content providers and webmasters.

    The Family Cookbook Project is dedicated to helping individuals and families collect and preserve the time-honored recipes that are so important to our family traditions. The website at www.familycookbookproject.com provides step-by-step instructions and online tools to create a valuable family heirloom. Personalized cookbooks are also used by schools and church groups as important fundraisers. Groups looking to create cookbooks for fundraising efforts, can also check out www.cookbookfundraiser.com.