Have you always wanted to put together a family cookbook, but feel unsure where to begin? You’re not alone! And we have good news: It’s not only possible, but incredibly rewarding to create a legacy family book. Here is the ultimate guide to researching, writing, and publishing a family cookbook you’ll be proud to pass on to future generations.
In this guide, we’ll look at:
I. Questions to consider when getting started
II. Researching your family story
III. Gathering and preserving family recipes
IV. Preparing photos for your book
V. Assembling your content
VI. Design and binding options
I. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN GETTING STARTED
After you’ve decided to assemble a family cookbook, there are a few useful things to ask yourself:
1. What kind of a book do I want to make?
Determining the scope of your project will help you plan out its creation, so think about the vision you have for your cookbook. Do you want to reach out to family members and ask them for their current favorite recipes? Do you want to document your family’s history through older recipes, stories, and photographs? Or do you want a cookbook that lies somewhere in between?
In the beginning, you can also think about how you’d like to organize your book. You may want it to include all types of recipes (organized into chapters like ‘Appetizers,’ ‘Mains,’ ‘Desserts,’ etc) or perhaps you’re interested in focusing on one particular theme; ‘holiday baking,’ ‘favorite family comfort food,’ or ‘recipes for entertaining’ are three good examples.
2. What is my budget?
A 100-page softcover book with no color photos will cost significantly less than a 200-page hardcover book with color photos on every page. Therefore, the amount of money you’d like to spend on printing should influence the choices you make throughout the project, including the number of color photos you include, the total page count, and the type of binding you select.
3. When do I want to have my book ready to print?
You may have years to work on this project, or just a few weeks! As with your budget, a publishing deadline can help you decide the size and scope of your book.
II. RESEARCHING YOUR FAMILY STORY
If you’re planning a cookbook that captures both your family’s favorite foods and its heritage, it’s time to get researching! Most of the time, the best place to start is with family members, so reach out to the people in your life who have stories and histories to share. If/when you’re ready to dive deeper, here are some other great resources:
–Ancestry.com
-The National Archive’s resources for those starting out with genealogical research
–Family Tree Magazine
–Familysearch.org
If you’re looking to do some research into the dishes themselves, check out foodtimeline.org, a wildly comprehensive site dedicated to documenting food history from just about every century, continent, and corner of the internet.
III. GATHERING AND PRESERVING FAMILY RECIPES
Once you’ve established some basic wants/needs for your cookbook, it’s only natural to begin with the recipes! In this section, we’ll discuss how to preserve old family recipes, how to ask for/organize recipes from family and friends, and how to edit/proofread recipes before putting them into your book.
How to preserve old family recipes
Many of you have inherited heirlooms and documents from your parents and/or grandparents, which may (or may not!) be tucked away somewhere in the attic; these often include a box of grandma’s handwritten recipe cards, dusty old paperback cookbooks, and binders stuffed haphazardly with magazine cutouts. These are culinary goldmines you don’t want to lose. To preserve them, you can:
-Scan or photograph your recipe cards/pages. Phone cameras are so good these days that no fancy camera is necessary. If possible, photograph the recipe cards in filtered natural light — next to a window on a cloudy day, for example — as this will greatly improve the quality of the photo. Once you’ve uploaded the photos to your computer, be sure to rename each photo with the name of the recipe + the type of dish (for example: BAKING – Mom’s Molasses Cookies.jpg, MAINS – Thanksgiving Stuffing.jpg, etc). This will make them a lot easier to organize later on. If you’d prefer not to have to transcribe each of these recipes, there’s an option within Heritage Cookbook for uploading recipe cards/pages, complete with titles at the top and specific space for recipe attribution.
-Type out your recipes in a Word document or Google doc, then later copy and paste them into the Heritage Cookbook program. Again, be sure to name the files in a way that will make them easy to find later on; you might also consider creating separate folders for each cookbook chapter (’Breakfast,’ ‘Appetizers,’ ‘Mains,’ etc).
Collaborating on a book
Understandably, cookbooks are often family affairs. If you’re the main organizer of a book with many contributors, it’s a good idea to plan ahead for how contributors should submit their recipes. Here are some tried and true strategies:
-Use our Contributors feature! Main account holders can invite people to contribute recipes directly to the book without allowing them access to the book as a whole. (In other words, Great Uncle Henry can’t accidentally delete all of your work.) Here’s our Help Guide article on inviting contributors, which includes a message you can send to contributors ahead of time; the more info they have about the process as a whole, the fewer questions you’ll have to field.
-Don’t forget to include a deadline! Giving people a shorter deadline is usually most effective, as it keeps the task front of mind for them.
-If you’re working as a team to put together a book and edit it, it’s a good idea to establish a formatting sheet so everyone types out their recipes the same way. For example, how are you abbreviating common measurements? Is it tablespoon, tbsp, or T? And will the recipe instructions be listed as bullet points, numbered steps, or short paragraphs?
-Google forms are an easy way for people to submit their recipe info and allow organizers more control over the format in which people submit. Here’s a template we’ve put together for requesting recipes — feel free to copy it verbatim. You may also want to consider creating a dedicated email address (ie, johnsonfamilycookbook@gmail.com) for the task.
IV. PREPARING PHOTOS FOR YOUR BOOK
Whether they’re of food, family, friends, or other cherished memories, a key highlight of many cookbooks are the photos. This section will cover basic food photography tips, how to preserve older photos, image formatting, and how you can add recipe cards to your book.
Taking food photos
If you’re planning to take some of your own food photos, here are a few things to consider:
-Lighting: Unless you have a professional setup with a flash, the quickest way to capture beautiful food photos is with filtered natural light. ‘Filtered’ means that direct sunlight has been diffused before it reaches the camera’s subject, either naturally (by clouds) or artificially (by drawing gauzy curtains across a window, for example). As with your recipe cards, moving a dish to a windowsill (or table close to a window) is often all you need to capture a nicely-lit image.
-Orientation: Do you want full-page photos opposite your recipe pages? If so, photograph your food in the ‘portrait’-style orientation, meaning the right and left sides of the photo are longer than the top and bottom. Alternatively, if you’d like smaller photos that can fit on the page with the recipe itself, shoot ‘landscape’-style, meaning the top and bottom of your photo will be the two longest sides of the rectangle. To vary things up, shoot some photos overhead (an aerial view of the dish), and others from the side.
As with organizing your recipes, it’s useful to keep photos in folders on your computer. For food photos, name the files both by recipe and chapter so you can find them easily (ie, Mains–Mom’s Jambalaya.jpg). Also name all non-food photos as specifically as possible (ie, Family–Emily at Maine Cabin.jpg).
Not keen on shooting your own food photos? Good news! Heritage Cookbook’s photo library — which is free for all users — contains hundreds of professionally-photographed images of popular recipes.
Digitizing your photos
If you’re fortunate enough to have a treasure trove of old family photos, you may first need to digitize them before they can be uploaded to your book. You can digitize printed photos with your smartphone, scan them on a printer/scanner at home, or have them professionally digitized.
How to ensure your photos are the correct format and size
Once your photos are organized, you’ll want to ensure each file is suitable for uploading. In order for your photos to print properly in your finished book, they need to be:
-In either a .png or .jpg format
-A minimum of 300 DPI (dots per inch)
-Ideally between 2.2MB (megabytes) and 7.2MB in size
How to add recipe cards to your book
If you have photos of handwritten recipe cards or recipe pages you’d like to include in your book, we have dedicated pages for that.
V. ASSEMBLING YOUR CONTENT
Additional writing
Once you’ve gathered all of your info, it’s time to start putting the actual book together. In addition to adding recipes and photos, you may also want to write:
-An introduction and/or dedication
-Headnotes, which are short introductions to each recipe that provide background on the dish. If you’ve asked contributors to include a note about the recipes they’ve provided, a headnote is the perfect place to include it.
-Family stories, history, anecdotes, and/or advice to include throughout the book
-Useful information about ingredients or cooking methods (For example, “Where to find harissa,” “How to toast hazelnuts,” “How to clean cast iron,” etc.).
VI. DESIGN AND BINDING OPTIONS
Once the contents of your book are sorted, it’s time to decide what it’s going to look like! Heritage Cookbook offers six different binding options as well as dozens of professionally-designed templates (with fully- and semi-customizable options available).
When it comes to choosing a style of binding, you’ll want to consider:
-Order volume: We have built-in discounts based on volume, so as the number of books you order goes up, the price per book goes down. Use the handy calculator on our website to get quotes for your book ordered at various volumes and with different bindings; this will give you an understanding of how far your budget goes.
-Functionality: Is it important to you that your finished cookbook lies flat when open? If so, you’ll want to choose a book with either a plastic or coil binding (which are available in both softcover and hardcover options).
Our six binding options are:
Coil bound softcover: These books measure 6”x9” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have a white plastic coil binding and lie flat on a counter when open. The covers are glossy.
Wiro bound softcover: These books measure 6”x9” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have a silver metal coil binding and lie flat on a counter when open. The covers are glossy.
Softcover with spine: These books measure 7”x10” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have soft glossy front and back covers and a spine. *Matte covers are also available upon request.
Hardcover with spine: These books measure 7”x10” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have hard glossy front and back covers and a spine. *Matte covers are also available upon request.
Hardcover wiro books: These books measure 7”x10” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have hard glossy front and back covers and a silver metal coil binding. When open, they lie flat on a counter.
Fundraiser books: These books measure 5 ½”x 8 1/2” and are printed on coated 70lb silk surface paper. They have a white plastic coil binding and lie flat on a counter. Fundraiser-style books are available in quantities of 100 or more.
See more about our book sizes and binding options here.
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The Ultimate Guide to Fundraising with Cookbooks
Selling cookbooks is a great way to raise funds for an important cause, charity, or community organization. But they don’t just serve as a way to make money—the process of collaborating on a cookbook is fun, meaningful, and educational for everyone involved.
Not just any old cookbook will sell, however! Your aim is to create a book that looks wonderful on the outside and contains plenty of recipes and stories that appeal to buyers. As cookbook fundraising experts, our goal is to help you achieve your financial goals as seamlessly as possible, and that’s why we’ve put together these eight steps towards cookbook fundraising success:
I. What’s your goal and what’s your budget?
II. Create a timeline
III. Establish a clear vision
IV. Collect the content
V. Proofread, proofread, proofread
VI. Design/customize your book
VII. Printing options
VIII. Selling
I. WHAT IS YOUR GOAL AND WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?
Before starting on the actual cookbook, you’ll first want to establish your goals for the fundraiser and determine the budget you have available to make them happen.
Confirming these numbers will:
1. Help you decide how big your cookbook should be.
We recommend books that are a minimum of 100 pages (since anything smaller than 100 pages appears insubstantial). In addition to the number of pages, you’ll want to consider how many color pages vs black and white pages you’re planning to include in the book, keeping in mind that color pages cost significantly more to print. Being cognisant of these factors means you’ll avoid creating a book that’s not prohibitively large and/or expensive to print.
2. Help you decide how many books you need to sell in order to reach your goal (and at which price they should be sold).
We’ve put together this handy calculator to help you determine the cost of your cookbook based on page numbers; color pages vs black and white pages; type of binding; and number of books ordered. It’s important to remember that the price per book goes down as the order volume goes up, so if you feel confident you’ll sell at least x number of books, it’s best to order them all at once.
3. Help you decide whether you want to buy all of the books upfront and sell the physical copies, or sell by pre-sale and distribute the books once they’ve arrived. Here’s an explanation of both:
Purchase first, sell books second:
The first, and more traditional, method of fundraising through cookbooks is to invest enough money upfront to purchase the books at cost, then sell them directly to customers. If you’re confident as to the number of books you’ll sell and like the idea of having physical copies of the books to show to prospective buyers, this is a good option for you.
Presales:
If you’re planning to sell through pre-sales, we can provide your group with personalized cards for collecting orders; each will have your book cover on the front and relevant ordering info on the back (including QR codes, Venmo info, etc). The major benefits to the presale model are:
-You’ll know exactly how many books you’d like to order
-You can start selling your book even before it’s finished
-Your upfront investment is typically no more than $70-$100.
II. CREATE A TIMELINE
Next, you’ll want to establish a project timeline for creating, ordering, and selling your cookbooks. It’s best to leave at least three weeks between placing your order and receiving your books, so we recommend first deciding what your ‘books-in-hand’ date is, then working backwards from there.
If you’re aiming to sell cookbooks in June, for example, you’d ideally begin your project in December/January and place your order at the beginning of May. If there are multiple people contributing to the book, remember that at least a few of them will be tardy with their submissions, so buffer your timeline a bit to account for this.
III. ESTABLISH A CLEAR VISION FOR YOUR BOOK
A cookbook with an authentic vision and story behind it will be much easier to promote than a collection of recipes with no particular theme. Consider these questions when planning your book:
1. Who are you selling these cookbooks to?
Who will be your main customer base? Are you planning to sell to the community at large, or is this a book aimed at a more specific group to whom you’ll want to cater the recipes? Think about your audience when deciding the overall theme of your book; examples could include nostalgic family favorites, kid-friendly recipes, and easy weeknight meals.
2. When are you selling?
Another major consideration is the time of year you’ll be selling your cookbooks. While evergreen themes (kid-friendly favorites, for example) work year round, others are much more seasonal. ‘101 Comforting Soups’ may seem like a great idea while you’re planning it in January, but will it be appealing to people when you’re selling them in June?
3. What is the story behind this cookbook? Why are you selling it?
These questions might seem really obvious. “We’re selling these cookbooks in order to raise money for our cause!” Sharing the story behind your cause, however, is just as important as the recipes you’re offering. Provide a history of your group/organization, and share why the cause you’re fundraising for is important. Are you raising money to build a new roof on your community center? If so, why is the community center such an important place? Are you helping supplement the cost of a school trip? If so, what will this trip mean to the students attending? Articulate your cookbook’s story/purpose ahead of time, and be sure to include it at the beginning of the book; attaching real, human experiences to the recipes will help potential customers identify with your cause.
IV. COLLECT THE CONTENT
If you’re the main organizer of a book with multiple contributors, it’s a good idea to plan ahead for how contributors will submit their recipes. Here are some tried and true strategies:
1. Use our Contributors feature!
Main account holders can invite people to contribute recipes directly to the book without allowing them access to the book as a whole. (In other words, they can’t accidentally delete all of your work). Here’s our Help Guide article on inviting contributors, which includes a message you can send to contributors ahead of time regarding the invitation; the more info they have about the process, the fewer questions you’ll have to field.
2. Use Google forms.
Google forms are not only an easy way for people to submit their recipe info, they also give organizers more control over the format in which people submit. Here’s a template we’ve put together — feel free to copy it verbatim.
You may also want to consider creating a dedicated email address (ie, jhbschoolfundraiser@gmail.com) for the task.
Other tips for collecting content:
-Be specific about what kinds of recipes you need from people. If you’re trying to put together a book that includes appetizers, soups/salads, main courses, desserts, and baking but 90% of the recipes submitted are for cookies, the imbalance will be obvious.
-Don’t forget to include a deadline! Giving people shorter deadlines (one week, as opposed to one month, for example) is usually most effective, as it keeps the task front of mind for the people you’ve reached out to.
-If you’re working as a team to put together your cookbook and edit it, it’s a good idea to establish a formatting sheet so everyone works the same way. For example: How are you abbreviating common measurements? Is it ‘tablespoon,’ ‘Tbsp,’ or ‘T’? Do you want baking measurements to be submitted as grams, or as cups/spoons? Do you want the method of each recipe to be broken into numbered steps, or written out in short paragraphs?
-Are you asking contributors for photographs? If so, include an easy place for them to upload their photos (Dropbox, for example) and information on ideal photo specifications. For starters, specify if you’d like them to submit half-page ‘landscape’-oriented photos, or full page ‘portrait’-oriented photos. Please ask for images to be submitted in these formats:
-Either .jpg or .png
-High resolution for printing (meaning a minimum Dots Per Inch/DPI of 300)
-A minimum size of 2.2MB (megabytes)
-Named with the submitter’s name and recipe title (ie, Smith-Chocolate Chip Cookies.jpg)
-If you’re working with local businesses who are buying ads in your cookbook, please provide them with these ad specs:
-For a full-page ad, their image should be: 8.5” x 14”, minimum 300 DPI
-For a half-page ad, their image should be: 14” x 10”, minimum 300 DPI
V. PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD
Whether there are 200 people working on your cookbook or two, proofreading and editing are tedious but crucial parts of the process. During the proofing process, you’ll want to ensure:
-There are no typos
-Each recipe is complete and formatted in the same way
-All recipes are properly attributed
If possible, more than one person should be tasked with proofreading the cookbook multiple times each.
*TIP: When proofreading, read the book aloud as you edit, articulating each word individually. While it’s easy for eyes to skip over mistakes while reading, hearing them said out loud is much harder to ignore!
VI. DESIGN
Here’s the thing: People do judge books by their cover! So now’s the time to make your cookbook look as professional as possible. With fundraising status, you’ve got more than 100 designer templates to choose from. This includes the ‘pick your own design’ template, which allows you to create your own front cover, back cover, and all section title pages for a fully-branded book.
At this time, you’ll also want to make final decisions on design choices like font, page layout styles, divider lines, and more.
VII. PRINTING AND BINDING
Once you’re ready to place your order, there are four major considerations:
1. The type of binding you want
We have six different bindings to choose from, though most groups opt for our special fundraising binding: These 5.5”x8.5” books with white plastic coil are both smaller than our other books and have paper that’s slightly less thick, keeping both printing and shipping costs down. Some groups opt for the 6”x9” white plastic coil binding (our most popular overall), which is still incredibly cost effective when ordered in large numbers.
2. Color vs. black and white pages
Because color pages cost more to print than b&w pages, be mindful of how many color pages you include in your book. If you’re working within a very limited budget, consider printing the interior of your book entirely in black and white.
3. How many books you’ll order
If you’re planning to order the fundraising binding, you’ll need to purchase a minimum of 100 books. (Please note: There are no minimums for the five other binding styles.) As mentioned above, the price per book goes down as the order volume goes up, so it’s advisable to order/ship as many books at once as possible.
4. Where you’ll store them
Another factor to consider is where your books will go once they’ve arrived and before they’re distributed. Hundreds of books can take up a lot of room, so plan for the shipment to be sent to a location that’s safe, dry, and spacious enough to accommodate them.
VIII. SELLING
We’ve arrived at the most important part of your fundraiser: The actual book sales! If you have a website, you may want to set up an online store in order to reach potential customers outside of your geographic region. You can also reach out to your friends / families / partner organizations; advertise on social media and through email newsletters; and/or connect with local media outlets who might feature your fundraiser.
Additional Resources:
For information on how to use the Heritage Cookbook program, please visit our:
–Youtube channel
–FAQ
–Help Guide
For help editing recipes, we highly recommend this article by Dianne Jacobs of Will Write for Food.
Finally, for tips on images for your book, head on over to the Serious Eats Guide to Food Photography.
March 4, 2022 | Posted in:
Margarita pie, or key lime tequila pie
I’ve got March Break on the mind. It happens to us Northerners some time in March. We’ve endured as much winter fun as one should have to, and as the days get longer, the birds start chirping a little louder and the occasional patch of muddy grass pokes through the snow piles, we start to think about warm places. March is really a mind jam – you think spring is coming, but there’s still a ways to go, and the days are frustratingly unpredictable. So many many many many of us head south for a week or so, just to give us the strength to endure the slow tease of springs unveiling.
With that in mind, I thought it might be fun this week to look for a recipe that combines the fun of a classic spring break cocktail with the sin of a sticky sweet treat. The result is a stunning dessert that will leave you feeling like you’ve indulged in a romp at a beach side restaurant without the hangover!
Ingredients
4 large egg yolks
1-14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 C Margarita mix (see below for homemade margarita mix)
1-2 T tequila
1-9 inch prepared graham cracker pie shell
Unsweetened whipped cream (optional)
Preparation Instructions
Position rack in the center of oven and preheat to 350. Whisk together the yolks and the condensed milk. Add the margarita mix and whisk for 1 minute. Whisk in the tequila. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake until filling is lightly, but evenly set and the edges of the shell are lightly browned, 12-15 minutes. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until ready to serve, at least 2 hours. Top wedges with whipped cream (optional) to serve.
Home made Margarita mix
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup fresh lime juice
Mix all ingredients. Cook in a saucepan until all the sugar has dissolved, and mixture has thickened somewhat, about 10 minutes. Let cool. Will keep refrigerated about a month.
February 22, 2022 | Posted in:
Perfect Negroni cocktail
There’s no doubt cocktails are having a real moment. And why wouldn’t they. There’s something so deliciously pleasing about taking a bit of time to prepare a perfect cocktail, whether it be a boozy one like the classic Negroni, or a mocktail with fresh and innovative ingredients. The entire ritual around preparing a cocktail is a real joy for me- I love setting the mood with the right music and lighting, getting the ingredients out, choosing the right glassware (this is very very very important in my house!) and mixing it up. That first sip just sets the mood perfectly for a relaxing evening ahead.
Maybe it’s a result of the pandemic, but I’ve definitely seen more and more personal recipe books with incredible cocktails in them, which inspired me to put up this recipe for my fave classic cocktail. Well, to be honest, it’s a toss up between the bitter and sweet gin based Negroni and the smooth bourbon Manhattan. Both are pretty easy to make.
Ingredients
1 ounce gin
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
Garnish: orange peel
Instructions
Add the gin, Campari and sweet vermouth to a mixing glass filled with ice, and stir until well-chilled.
Strain into a rocks glass filled with large ice cubes.
Garnish with an orange peel.
February 11, 2022 | Posted in:
Superbowl worthy air fryer chicken wings
I’m new to the Air Fryer trend, but ever since we got ours, I’ve been experimenting with cooking different things in it. It’s definitely a useful appliance! But its moment of glory is really when it comes to cooking things extra crispy without deep frying them. Take the humble chicken wing. It’s like it was meant for the air fryer. And with the big game coming up on the weekend, we can’t think of a better time to use this trendy appliance!
Ingredient list
2lb chicken wings
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup hot sauce
Fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Ingredient list
Instructions
In a small bowl, mix garlic powder, paprika cayenne pepper, and salt. Sprinkle dry mix over wings, and refrigerate for 60-90 mins, uncovered.
Heat air fryer to 380. Spray the rack with non stick spray. Line chicken wings on the rack in a single layer, making sure they don’t touch one another. You may need to cook them in two batches. Cook 12 minutes, turn, cook another 12 minutes.
While they are cooking, mix butter, hot sauce and pepper in sauce pan and cook over low heat until melted.
Turn the heat up to 400 and cook an additional 5-7 minutes, until crispy.
Remove wings and toss in hot sauce mixture, or serve as a dipping sauce. Serve with blue cheese or ranch dressing!
February 1, 2022 | Posted in:
The very best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
If you are looking for the ultimate oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, look no further. This is the perfect family recipe. They are chewy and moist and will not last 24 hours, promise! I’ve played around with different ways to incorporate the butter, and have come up with the fastest cookie method ever by simply melting the butter. No stand mixer, no creaming, and it all gets made in one bowl. Yup, one bowl moist delicious cookies you definitely need to make. You will want to create your own cookbook of cookie recipes once you know this recipe!
Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup melted salted butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup oats
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
Melt the butter completely.
In a mixing bowl, mix sugars, then pour in melted butter and whisk for a few minutes. Add the egg and mix for a few minutes. Add vanilla.
Dump flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda on top of mixture, and mix with a spatula until mixed. Add chocolate chips and mix.
Refrigerate dough 30 minutes min- I usually cool it for an hour or so.
Heat oven to 350.
Using a cookie scoop or spoons, spoon dough onto parchment lined cookie sheet, about 1 1/2″ apart.
Bake 10 minutes. When the cookies come out, slam the sheet down onto the counter to flatten the cookies. This makes them extra chewy.
Let cool and move to a rack.
January 14, 2022 | Posted in:
Chili spiced braised beef
Here is a warm and cozy family favorite recipe that’s been updated with a spicy twist. Enjoy it on a cool winter night with corn bread or rice.
Ingredients
8 to 10 dried ancho chilis (2 tbsp ground if you can’t find them)
4 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
One 4- to 5-pound chuck roast or tri-tip roast, cut into 1-inch cubes, or try short ribs for richer, but fattier version
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 large onion, sliced
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoons sugar
2 bay leaves
Preparation instructions
Add the chilis and garlic to a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and steep for 20 to 30 minutes. Pour off half the cooking liquid. Using an immersion blender, puree the peppers, garlic and remaining liquid until smooth. You can skip this step if you are using ground chilis.
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the meat with the salt, pepper and spices. When the oil is hot, add the meat to the Dutch oven and brown on all side. Set aside.
Add the tomato paste and onion to the pot and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the stock, sugar, bay leaves and pepper puree to the pot and stir to combine. Return the beef to the pot and cover. Cook in the oven until the meat is fall-apart tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Remove the bay leaves. You can serve this as is as a stew, or pull it apart and serve it in tortillas as you would carnitas. Garnish with cilantro.
December 8, 2021 | Posted in:
6 tips for hosting a cookie exchange
1. Keep the guest list small
I recently hosted a cookie exchange and after the year and a half of lockdowns, was really craving some company. So I invited all the neighborhood moms I knew. And they all said yes. We had 16 women attend, which mean if we all wanted to exchange 4 cookies, we had to make 64 cookies each! And I needed room to plate 1024 cookies in my tiny house!
2. Stick to cookies you know how to make
This is not a competition, and certainly no time to try to replicate the beautiful professionally decorated cookies you see in magazines. (I used to work on photo shoots for magazines, I know what’s involved with making those stunners!). If you have a lot of cookies to make, and like me, you’re short on time, you won’t have time to scrap an entire batch of cookies if they don’t work the first time. Trust me from experience here. A delicious no fail recipe is all you need.
3.You don’t need to serve a whole lot of other food
Something about the site of dozens (in my case over a 1000!) cookies just cuts everyone’s appetite. Keep the nibbles simple- some delicious crackers, nuts if guests don’t have allergies, maybe a cheese and charcuterie platter is all you need.
4.Give your guests something to bring their cookies home in
This is a fun opportunity to dress up a plain box with some tissue paper, maybe some scrapbooking stickers. Give everyone their box so that they can bring all those delicious cookies home to their families, or freeze them until they need them over the holidays!
5.Label the cookies
With so many food intolerances these days, it’s a good idea to provide a label, or little easel (you can buy cheap ones at Michaels) with the name of the cookies, maybe the name of the person that made it, and any allergens. In my case, my husband and son are allergic to nuts, so I kept the nuts cookies in a different room and asked everyone to help themselves to the non nut cookies first to avoid contamination.
6.Consider making a cookbook of cookie recipes
Take photos of the cookies and guests throughout the evening, then ask your guests if they are comfortable sharing their recipe. You can then make a holiday cookie recipe cookbook to give to your friends as a surprise holiday gift after the event! A little cookbook with color photos will cost less than $10 to make, and commemorate a very special evening!
December 8, 2020 | Posted in:
4 Restaurant Items to Add to Your Family Cookbook
Food is a human essential. A favorite restaurant is a destination, a place to gather with family and share delicious food and memories. We gather together around food and through the food we connect with other cultures and people and learn about the world. And then, COVID-19 hit.
Due to COVID-19, our favorite restaurants are shut down, and many of us have had to go without visiting our favorite restaurants or eating our favorite dishes. But don’t fear! Many world-famous cooks have tried to brighten these dark times by releasing their tried and true recipes online. Not only can you save money by cooking at home, but you’ll also get to enjoy your favorite restaurant meal at home.
Make your own cookbook from your favorite family recipes and include a few favorite restaurant recipes. It is a great way to share your love of food and create memories with the people you love. In this post, we’ll give you some ideas on how to make a recipe book with restaurant recipes to enjoy during lockdown or years after.
Here are some restaurant classics we’ve gathered up to share with you. They make great additions to a custom cookbook and your family will be thrilled they can make their favorite restaurant dishes at home. Plus, these recipes don’t always stick around so it’s a good idea to save them while you can.
1. Andersen’s Famous Pea Soup
If you’ve ever taken a family road trip to California, you may be familiar with the Buellton cafe. Famous for its Andersen’s Split Pea Soup, generations of travelers have made the stop for some home cooking and delicious soup. It’s so famous that the visitors’ bureau even gives out copies of this famous recipe, now available online.
The recipe is easy to follow and has been a favorite for decades. It’s the perfect heartwarming comforting recipe to make for your family while we’re all at home.
2. Buddha Bowl from Fresh Restaurant
If you are looking for a delicious healthy meal that is full of freshness and flavor and is sure to please the masses, look no further than this recipe for the Buddha Bowl from Toronto’s Fresh Restaurant. The flavourful creamy peanut sauce over rice with tofu and fresh vegetables has been one of their most popular dishes for over a decade.
Make up a batch of this fresh and spicy peanut sauce and pour it over rice or noodles and add your favorite fresh vegetables.
3. Ikea Meatballs
If you’ve been missing your regular dose of Ikea Meatballs after a marathon family shopping trip then look no further. The famous Swedish store has released the recipe for their famous meatballs with cream sauce. Normally gobbled by the plateful by hungry shoppers, you can also buy them frozen to go. These are a traditional Swedish meatball recipe with a cream sauce.
4. Dollywood’s Famous Cinnamon Bread
Ok, so it isn’t a well-known restaurant, per se, but the cinnamon bread served at Dolly Parton’s theme park Dollywood, in Tennessee is so popular that they can sell an average of 350 loaves an hour to hungry visitors.
Dolly’s famous Cinnamon Bread is comfort food at its best. It is sweet, gooey, and loaded with cinnamon and butter – with a secret recipe direct from the Tennessee songbird herself. What could be better during a quarantine?
We hope you’ve enjoyed these family recipe book ideas. Don’t forget to include your family’s favorite restaurant meals in your custom cookbook. It is a great way to share food, share memories, and create new ones safely at home until we can all be together again. If you have any questions about how to make your own custom cookbook, or for more recipe ideas, contact us.
October 20, 2020 | Posted in:
Community Custom Cookbooks as a Pandemic Escape
A great find at any local thrift store is a copy of someone’s well-loved community cookbook. It’s often a bit dogeared, with spatters of food on favorite pages. You’ll not only find great recipe ideas inside, but you’ll also get a peek at the heart of the community that put the cookbook together.
These community cookbooks historically are created by women’s community groups. They are also a great way to raise money for important causes in the community. During COVID-19, when we are all separated from our friends and family, creating cookbook fundraisers together is a great way to collaborate with friends and neighbors.
Here are some ideas for cookbook fundraising to help create your cookbook safely during the lockdown.
Connect Through Food
During the pandemic, many people have turned to cooking and baking as a way to pass the time at home or to relieve stress. This extra time has also sent people searching through old cookbooks for nostalgic comforting recipes. Community cookbooks are a great source of homemade, comfort food made by real people.
Often these community cookbooks are curated by community members to raise money for a local school, church, or charity. The recipes inside feature family favorites and show what the people in that community love to eat, drink and feed to their families. It’s a history book with a social twist and a time capsule of a community.
Sharing recipes and stories are also a fantastic way to stay grounded in uncertain times. Some people take up running, others learn to bake sourdough. If you can’t visit friends and neighbors to offer support, create something together. Sharing a cookbook with the community can bring people together and offer a bit of hope and comfort in uncertain times.
Collaborate Safely
A great benefit of creating a cookbook fundraiser these days is that most of the work can be done online. Contributors can easily submit recipes with a click of a button and include fabulous pictures and stories to make the recipe come alive for readers. It is a way to capture a taste of the community, but also a snapshot of this time we are living through.
As an organizer, you don’t need to meet in person – simply send out an email asking interested participants to send in their recipes. If you have a team working on the project, you could schedule a zoom meeting or two to catch up – and even cook your favorite dish and share a meal as you meet. It’s the perfect way to connect and collaborate together, even if you have to stay apart.
Raise Money
Community cookbooks are historically a way for community groups to come together and fundraise for important causes. Now that in-person events and charity events are canceled, many causes are feeling the pinch. Community cookbook fundraisers are a way that the community can come together and raise funds safely.
Once you’ve put together your cookbook, offer it for sale to the community members who contributed and ask them to pass it on to their networks. Contactless drop-offs or porch pickups make delivery safe for everyone. Cookbooks make great unique Christmas presents that not only provide great recipes but support important local causes.
Heritage Cookbooks is proud to be a part of this long-standing tradition of bringing communities and people together to support causes that are important to them. We are especially proud to help bring families and friends together in these uncertain times.