www.creativeladiesministry.com

[Coni]

Dear Ladies,
This year for Christmas I want to give my sisters and friends a Family Cook Book. I would like to include verses so I can use this as a witnessing tool also. Now that's the easy part (coming up with the idea!) - the hard part is doing it. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for me? I would appreciate all the help I can get!

God Bless each of you.
Coni
_________________
Stand still and consider the wonderous works of God.
-Job 37:14-

[Bramblerose]

If you are doing it yourself on the computer, a program like Microsoft Publisher is very helpful. I use it to do a monthly booklet for our ladies group, and it very easy to type things in so they come out in booklet format. Plus it has clipart in it, or you can import other clip art or scanned pictures or art work. There may be other programs, but I don't know what they are.

If you don't have that program, you might check with Office Max, Office Depot, or some place like that and see what they offer. I don't know if they do booklets, but with all else that they do, it seems like they would.

Our group just did a church cookbook with Morris Press (which I would guess you wouldn't want to do for just a family cookbook, since the minimum order is 100 books), but they let us include "fillers" (stuff to put in the blank spaces at the bottom of pages under a recipe) of either art work or quotes or verses. I used my online Bible concordance and came up with a number of verses that have to do with food and drink. Many of them are pure gospel ("I am the Bread of Life..."). Plus our pastor wrote an intro. called "Recipe for Righteousness" with the gospel, comparing it to a recipe, handed down through the ages, can't change the ingredients, etc.

[Brynne]

DD did this as a home schooling project about 10 years ago. She used a word processing program. She asked for favorite recipes from all the aunts, cousins, grandmas, etc. and then complied them into a nice book. We printed it at home. But if I were doing it now for a small amount of books, I'd use Staples or Kinkos to put the covers and spirals on. Plus their printing is reasonable.

I think it's a great idea to use it as a witnessing tool.

[jodi]

When young ladies in our church get married I make a cookbook for them made up of recipes from the ladies in the church. I use Word and print each recipe on a 4x6 card. You can find photo albums or cookbooks that have clear plastic pages in them that will hold (2) 4x6 cards per page. The nice thing about this format is that it can be added to in the future.
_________________
Jodi
Jer 32:27 Behold, I [am] the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

[Coni]

What a blessing each of you ladies are to me! Thanks so much for the imput. I feel like I now have a 'foundation to spring from'! Tonight I am going to surf the internet and see what else I can find.

You know after I post my request I thought that I could also make an apron to go along with the cookbook. Should be a good and fun project for the summer. The nicest thing about this is that I can pray for each and every person as I am doing this. AMEN to that!

Again, thanks so much!

Coni




_________________
Stand still and consider the wonderous works of God.
-Job 37:14-

[KatyL]

Hi Coni,

That is such a labor of love you are doing for you family. What a great idea it is. I bet they will all love it. Family recipes are always the best.

I play the guitar and made my own chorus book. I took it to the local printers and they bound it in spiral binding for me for only $3.00, which I thought was pretty cheap. Maybe you could find it even cheaper with a bigger production quantity.

[Coni]

Dear Katy,
Thanks so much for your suggestion! There has been so many of them that I will need to pick and choose (the hard part!). I do have a wonderful picture of my Great and Great-Great Grandmothers serving tea in Cornwall, England. That might make a nice cover.

You are right about this cookbook being a 'labor of love'. It will include not only family favorites from each household but also family recipes of my mother (now deceased). I will sprinkle the cookbook with scriputures and helpful hints. Though I have made many different kinds of gifts, this one is giving me so much JOY! The same kind of JOY as when I cross stitch scripture verses to give as gifts. Truly it is the JOY of the LORD!

In his service, Coni
Enjoy your worship time this week!
_________________
Stand still and consider the wonderous works of God.
-Job 37:14-

[amyb]

My family recently did a cookbook.
We just bought plain white 3-ring binders with the clear plastic pocket on the front. The first few pages was family tree. The front cover was a picture of the house that our my great grandmother grew up in. There were quite a few old pictures and scriptures. We used cardstock paper for the dividers between categories and just regular paper for the recipies. For some of the recipes that were hand written by grandparents, we made sure to include copies of the actual hand-written page and then typed it out to make sure it was legible. And using the binder you can easily edit or add to.

It is a family treasure which I get out at least once a week, either to find a recipe or just to reminisce.
_________________
In His grip and grace-
Amy

[Coni]

Hi Amy,

Thanks so much for sharing your Family Cookbook ideas with me. I like the simplicity of using the 3 ring notebook binder. Good idea!

I would also like to thank you Amy and EVERYONE else who posted thoughts and ideas for me. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

In his service,
Coni
_________________
Stand still and consider the wonderous works of God.
-Job 37:14-