Family Cookbooks: Making Meals, Making Memories

Each year, we celebrate a myriad of family events—Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, Grandparents Day, and others. It can be easy to fall into the same routine of flowers, food, and a fast departure to get on with the day’s activities.

If you’re looking for a fun way to switch up your intergenerational celebrations, might we suggest a family cookbook?

Benefits of Enjoying Food Together

Food is widely praised for its positive mental health-boosting and self-esteem-boosting capabilities across the lifespan:

• Family meals are a wonderful outlet for spending quality time together.
• Home-cooked meals offer an easy way to pass on family traditions.
• Cooking and eating together provides an opportunity for shared experiences that can become cherished family memories.
• When cooking is a family affair, participants feel a sense of purpose as they provide and care for their family members.
• For younger family members, cooking provides many learning opportunities: math when measuring ingredients, reading comprehension when using recipes, planning when preparing a menu or table, problem-solving when a substitute or adjustment is needed, teamwork and responsibility when cooking as part of a group, etc. Use these tips to help communicate more effectively across generations.

Plus, you’re not sitting in a room staring at a smartphone or TV when cooking. Though time away from screens may sound stressful to some, cooking together provides a passive way to socialize (though there may be a screen with a digital recipe on it, and that’s OK!).

How To Create a Family Cookbook

The idea of creating a cookbook might seem overwhelming, but it can be very manageable if you break it down into smaller steps:

1. Pick Your Format: Determine how you want to format your book. This can be as simple or complex as you’d like. Recipes could be written in a Word document, or you could use a service to help create a more aesthetic template. (As you continue reading, you’ll find some online resources for designing and producing a cookbook.) Some families may prefer a one-time print, while others may want something that can be added to over time, like a three-ring binder or scrapbook. You can pick a recipe theme (e.g., “Comfort Foods from Nana”) or keep it vague.
   Regardless of the design/production choices you make, don’t forget about organization. You want to be able to find the recipes when it’s time to make them! A common system for cookbook organization is to arrange the recipes by type (appetizers/snacks, beverages, breakfast/brunch, desserts, main dishes, salads, sauces, sides, soups, etc.) and then organize them alphabetically within those categories. If you’re only printing once, a table of contents would be a good addition. But if you’re planning to add recipes to the book over the years, constantly updating a table of contents might not be worth your time.
2. Gather Recipes: Even if you choose to build up your cookbook over time, you’ll want to start with at least a small stockpile of recipes. Connect with your family members and ask them what they’d like to include. Don’t pass over your little ones! Ask about their favorite snacks. Even something as simple as a special trail mix can create lasting memories and heartwarming stories.
3. Create Your Template: When you have a handful of recipes, prepare a template that you can use to maintain consistency throughout the book. Elements you may want to include are recipe name, photo, ingredient list, instructions/hints, serving size/suggestion, prep time, nutritional information, allergen/dietary indicators (gluten-free, vegetarian, contains nuts, etc.), and stories or quotes associated with the recipe.
4. Create Your Cookbook: You’ve done the prep, now it’s time to bring your book to life! Add the elements of each person’s recipe(s) to your template. The attention to detail required for this step can be tedious. If possible, divide the work. You’ll likely want someone to proofread the completed pages as well, especially if you’re doing a more permanent printed book vs. a binder that allows you to change out pages.
5. Enjoy! After you’ve created your special family heirloom, put it to use. When holidays and celebrations come, set aside time to bond with your family as you cook together or enjoy a recipe.

Special Touches for Your Family Cookbook

The best part of making a family cookbook is that you can make it truly yours. It doesn’t need to just be a resource; it can be a representation of the people you love and the traditions your family enjoys. Here are a few special touches you can consider:

• In your template, format the title of the recipe in the handwriting of the person who submitted it. You could even have them “sign” it!
  
  5-Cheese Baked Macaroni
  With love, from Grandma Barb
  
  One way to make this look nice is to have paper with a border that you ask each person to write their title on. Then, take a picture of the paper and include it as a photo at the top of each design.
• When making your template, save a spot to add a photo (or multiple photos) of family members cooking or enjoying the recipe together. This would work great with a scrapbook-style format.
• Include blank or lined pages for anecdotes and notes so family stories can add up over the years.

Resources for Making a Family Cookbook

Cookbooks have been around for ages, but you don’t have to do all the work that was needed to make a cookbook back in the day. There are many resources to make the process easier for you and your family.

• If you want to include nutrition information, you can turn to free recipe nutrition calculators like Recipe Card Blocks, Verywell Fit, or MyFitnessPal.
• If you’d like help with design and production, websites like Shutterfly, Mixbook, and CreateMyCookbook have cookbook templates you can fill in. Plus, when it’s time to print the book, you can submit your order right there!
• If you’d prefer to have more control over your design but still need some support, Canva provides templates you can use as a starting point and adjust as you desire. This is a great option if you plan to use a binder so you can continuously add to and update your cookbook.

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