Creating a Family Cookbook Project

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 1/2x11 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.

Posted by Bill at 09:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Chip Lowell at 01:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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!

Posted by Chip Lowell at 01:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We at FamilyCookbookProject.com want to wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving! We are so very thankful for you, our customers, for using our cookbook software system to keep your family food treasures online and in your own printed cookbooks.

If you haven't printed yet and want your copies by Christmas, the ordering deadline is December 5th. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, make sure to print a few pages out and show your families to encourage them to enter those last few recipes.

Enjoy the weekend!

Chip Lowell and Bill Rice
FamilyCookbookProject.com Co-publishers

Posted by Chip Lowell at 08:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Bill at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's September and Back to School time. Time to get "everyone on the bus" and helping on The Best of the Family Cookbook Project Cookbook!

Well, Summer 2009 has come and gone. Hope you had a great one! Fall is coming officially on the 21st - but it's feeling like fall already with school back in session. So - time to get everyone busy adding and trying yummy recipes to your 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.

Thank you for using our state-of-the-art system to help create your family heirloom cookbook. We have valued your business and hope to continue to help you with your family or group cookbook.

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?

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!

Coming Soon to Family Cookbook Project

We are really excited here at Family Cookbook Project. Our site continues to help families, schools and churches bring people together to create wonderful cookbooks to share and treasure for years to come. To date we have editors have created more than 8,000 cookbooks with more than 49,000 contributors and nearly 200,000 recipes!

In the next week or so, we will be adding a "Facebook" type of email alert to help you get contributors involved. When someone adds a recipe into the system, all your contributors will get an email with the new recipe title, contributor name and a link to login and add a recipe. It won't be overwhelming - just one email per login session. Each of your contributors can also turn off notifications if they like, too. You as editor can also just turn off the whole feature from 'Edit Your Cookbook'

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 dinner side dish:

This recipe for Cheesy Squash Casserole, by Jayne Chapman, is from The Chapman Family Cookbook. Search for more great recipes here from over 200,000 in our family cookbooks!

Cheesy Squash Casserole Recipe
Contributor: Jayne Chapman

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Category: Vegetables and Vegetarian Dishes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingredients: 4 lbs. yellow squash sliced
1 medium onion diced
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
2 cups cornflake crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
1 (10 1/2 oz) can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 c. grated cheddar cheese

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook squash and onion in lightly salted boiling water until soft (about 20 minutes on medium). Drain and mash. Add all other ingredients but cheese and mix well. Put mixture into round baking dish and top with cheese. Bake 20 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number Of Servings: 6-8
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Editors Ideas - how to keep your contributors motivated

The holidays are coming. 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 soon - and get all their email addresses so you can add them to your book. Have fun!

Posted by Chip Lowell at 11:02 AM

(NAPSI)-Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation day or other special time for you and yours, you can make it even more savory with a delicious meal.

To help, there's a brand new cookbook with 300 recipes, such as:

• A sumptuous brunch: Dreamy Orange Waffles, Baked Puffy Cheese Omelet with Peach Salsa, Overnight Blintz Bake or Cheesy Vegetable Quiche.

• Lunch or dinner might include: Slow Cooker Burgundy Stew with Herb Dumplings, Skillet Chicken Parmesan, Oven-Fried Pork Cutlets with Apple Slaw or Impossibly Easy Quesadilla Pie.

• Special sweet treats: Peach-Praline Tart, Fudgy Frosted Brownie Cookies or Impossibly Easy Toffee Bar Cheesecake.

• Take breakfast to the next level: Bisquick, the nation's bestselling convenience baking mix, makes it a snap to prepare Pear'n Ginger-Topped Waffle, Scrambled Egg Biscuit Cups or Carrot-Walnut Coffee Cake.

"The Betty Crocker Ultimate Bisquick Cookbook" (Wiley) offers plenty of stress-free cooking inspiration to make any meal you prepare-brunch, lunch or dinner for Mom or Dad, a birthday celebration or just a get-together of family or friends--a good time.

This posting is sponsored by the Family Cookbook Project which helps families and small groups create personalized cookbooks that are easy and affordable.

Posted by Bill at 05:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)