It’s National Scrapbook Day and I have a newly finished project to share. It’s a scrapbook, but it’s also a family cookbook, full of recipes from my Grandmother’s old tin and my Mother’s recipes written on scraps of paper and backs of envelopes. The collection includes those that hold particular memories, or those that are asked for at family gatherings.
It was fun to go through them. I was first struck by how different we cook now, and what different ingredients we use. I would never boil a vegetable or use “oleo” in my cooking.
The family cookbook incorporates Echo Park’s “Made from Scratch” collection. But I also have memorabilia like this decorative art from a Trader’s Joe’s shopping bag. I like incorporating found items that relate to the project – gives it some variety!
The cookbook also has sections. Each cook’s recipes get a title page, like this one for my grandmother.
Sometimes I put an original recipe card right on the page. Preserving handwriting is another part of storytelling that I love to do. This happens to be my mother’s handwriting of Nanny’s recipe. Even though it’s always cleaner to type recipes, and my handwriting isn’t perfect, I chose to hand write the cookbook for this reason.
There’s one recipe in the cookbook from my husband, Tom. His chili always gets rave reviews. It’s a lengthy recipe so I typed it out and made a pocket to store it.
Washi tape, stickers and small embellishments are all I used in this book. Afterall, the recipes are the stars!
I also cut pictures from magazines. This one of shrimp is perfect with my Teriyaki Pineapple Shrimp recipe.
I hope you like this little family cookbook. So many people, myself included, save recipes to devices these days, or we go online to Food Network and print them out. But even if a recipe isn’t original, every family has a library of favorites. The recipes that get asked for over and over. So, collect your family recipes and make a family cookbook. Add notes and stories that can be passed down to the new cooks in your family. Because afterall, food is one of the ways we make memories.
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