I found this wonderful site where you can enter the ingredients of a particular dish you make and it will give you all the nutritional facts about that dish. It's really neat. I'm planning on using this to make a cookbook up for each member of the family containing the favorite family dishes we prepare on the holidays. I'm really excited about this. I'm also planning on adding photos and maybe some family info regarding a particular dish, like how it started or just a funny story associated with it.
The planning of this little project of mine has been a blast. With each dish I add, I discover numerous memories once forgotten. I've also discovered new dishes that I think will be excellent additions to our feasting traditions. I can imagine the kin folk thumbing through the pages now. They'll laugh to themselves when they cross a particular recipe that strikes a chord. They'll pass this cookbook on to their own children, telling them about the times those meals were prepared that made them so special.
For as long as I can remember, my family has been centered around the kitchen table. It's not only a place where we filled our bellies, it was also a place where we filled our souls. We'd conversate, play games, do homework, or work on a project at that table. It was the hub of our existance. Well, still is actually. And I'm excited to be adding something to it. I'm also excited to know that my kids will get the opportunity to experience many of the same moments I did. As they pour over a favorite dish, they will be taking a little piece of the past along with them into the future.
Isn't that so cool!?
2 comments:
I love the idea of creating a family cookbook. However, you should be aware that there are a lot of pitfalls to managing your family recipes online. Here's a good breakdown:
http://www.cookbookpeople.com/blog/2007/09/28/top-6-questions-to-ask-yourself-before-using-an-online-recipe-website/
I’m not a big fan of hosting my personal family recipes on a website. There are a number of pitfalls in putting hundreds of hours into maintaining an online recipe book:
1. Will they be around?
What happens if the website service goes bankrupt? Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but maybe next year.
2. What do you do if the recipes vanish?
Is there a backup? I’ve heard several stories of people entering all their recipes online and they just vanish. *poof*
3. What if they become obnoxious?
It may be free now, but what about three years from now? Five? Ten? What if they suddenly start flooding you with advertisements? If you build up a huge collection of recipes online, it’ll be really hard to just walk away.
4. How likely is it that you’ll share your family recipes with your grand daughter if it’s a bookmark on some web page?
Sitting in front of a computer, even online, is an inherently isolating event. Handing somebody a printed cookbook is inherently social.
Imagine you just died. (I know it’s horrible, but play along.) Are your descendants likely to stumble into your family recipes at website XYZ under the user name GrannyCookMachine537?
5. Are you comfortable with not having control over how your family recipes will be used?
If you carefully read the license agreements to these online recipe websites, you’ll notice that even though you own the recipes, they have publishing rights. They can make their own recipe book using your recipes and not pay you a dime. Melissa A. Trainer writes about this issue here.
6. Who wants to look up a recipe on a computer when your hands are covered in butter and eggs?
I’ll start making the pot roast as soon as my computer boots up. And my internet access starts. And I log on to the website. And I do a search for the recipe I want. And I do the search again because I typed it wrong. And–oh heck, let’s just order a pizza.
As Napoleon Dynamite’s brother said, “Yes, I love technology.” But not so much that I don’t see the value of a good ol’ fashioned printed cookbook. Obviously, as the owner of a cookbook printing software company, I’m pretty biased. But I could’ve just as easily started an online recipe storage website like all the others. I didn’t.
That’s because I believe the best way to manage your family recipes is from your own computer. Off line and in control.
I wasn't really planning on doing an online cookbook. I was simply going to find out the nutritional facts of all the family recipes and print them out, then compile it into a physical book that I could give to my loved ones. Sort of like a scrapbook cookbook, pictures of the family events where they're served included. That way, for those of us who are watching our weight during the holidays, we can keep track of the calories we consume.
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