Below, we’re very pleased to re-share an article from Hively, a trusted retirement navigator that empowers the 12,000 Americans retiring daily to make the most of their next chapter. The interview features Pam, a longtime Heritage Cookbook creator and Hively member who shared her cookbook-making journey with her retirement group!
Recipes to Memories, Writing a Family Cookbook with Pam
Meet Pam. A life-long Californian, Pam enjoys all things food related, traveling, reading, college football, and going to the theatre & jazz concerts. At the end of February, 2024, Pam retired from a 40+ year career in banking that she stumbled upon completely by accident.
For passionate home cook Pam, compiling a family cookbook was more than just assembling recipes – it was about preserving precious memories, traditions, and a legacy for future generations. Inspired by her son’s request to recreate his favorite childhood dishes, Pam’s project evolved into a rich anthology of family history and culinary delight.
Pam sees cooking as a magical act of bringing loved ones together. “You take bits and bobs of things, throw them into a pot, and voilà, you have something delicious that will warm your soul,” she shares. Her family cookbook beautifully blends recipes with cherished stories and photos, connecting the past, present, and future. One heartwarming tradition involves Pam’s granddaughter choosing a recipe from the book, like the family’s beloved key lime pie, to cook together.
In organizing her cookbook, Pam prioritized it being user-friendly for her family. She categorized recipes by type and included a clear index to help everyone easily find their favorites. Pam also made sure to capture the unique origins and traditions behind each dish, noting who inspired the recipe and any adaptations made over the years.
In creating her family cookbook, Pam chose Heritage Cookbook, a platform that offers customizable templates for crafting personalized cookbooks to create her family cookbook.Pam explored several options, but Heritage Cookbook stood out for its user-friendly templates that could handle both recipes and photos, while also allowing for plenty of customization. “I tried a few different platforms,” Pam shared, “but Heritage Cookbook was the one that gave me the creative freedom I needed.” Heritage Cookbook offered templates that accommodated her rich storytelling, making it easy to include family memories and anecdotes alongside the recipes.
The Hively team and community had the chance to ask Pam questions about her cookbook journey:
Q: How did you decide what order to put the recipes in?
I arranged them in standard cookbook categories – appetizers, main courses, desserts, and so on. I also included an index to make it easy to navigate, especially since some recipes connect to different branches of the family.
Q: What’s the oldest recipe in the cookbook?
One recipe dates back to my childhood— our family didn’t do traditional bread stuffing for Thanksgiving, but instead a rice dressing- Not sure where the recipe originated, but it is a family favorite that contains dried shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage (lop cheung). My niece eats it with turkey gravy to the exclusion of the rest of the meal. My cousins actually recently discovered the recipe in the cookbook and immediately made it!
There’s also a Swedish heirloom cookie recipe that my aunt only made at Christmas. That was the first recipe I ever collected, and it felt essential to include.
Q: Did you have family members taste-test the recipes?
Yes! I asked family members to review recipes and provide feedback. Some remembered adding a specific ingredient or adjusting the seasoning, which I noted. While I kept a consistent format, I left room for little variations, so my cousins helped make sure each recipe felt just right. For recipes like the key lime pie, I’d mention that the original version had a meringue topping, while my version includes coconut.
Q: What’s one of the biggest challenges you faced compiling recipes and stories?
Definitely prioritizing what to include. With a large family, I had to narrow down the list to recipes my son grew up with and truly loved. I also found the typing and proofreading tedious but essential to avoid errors.
Q: Did you include personal stories or memories along with the recipes?
Yes, each recipe often has a little note about who originally made it, how it’s been adapted, and even some funny family anecdotes. For example, for key lime pie, I note that it yields “eight servings – unless my son’s eating it, in which case it’s four.”
Q: How did you decide on the dedication for each book?
My first cookbook is dedicated to my son and granddaughter, as they’re the ones who inspired it. I also included a section of thanks to all the family members who contributed recipes or taste-tested for me. The second book, which is more about my personal journey with food, is dedicated to my husband. I even included a memoriam page to honor friends and family who have passed, and I added my dogs, who “taste-tested” everything too!
Q: How do you feel about the idea of leaving this cookbook as a legacy?
That’s really why I did it. Food is central to who I am, and I wanted my family to have something that connects them to me and to our traditions. It’s also a way to keep our food heritage alive and celebrate the stories and memories that go with each dish. Knowing that this book will be in my family for generations is so fulfilling.
November 13, 2024 | Posted in:
Summer Linguini with Tomatoes and Basil
Submitted by: Peggy
Recipe origin: USA
This recipe comes from the “Peggy’s Table” cookbook by Heritage Cookbook creator Peggy, who says this is “the BEST summer pasta recipe ever! I grow my own tomatoes and basil and my reward is this summer ritual every August!”
4 (or more) ripe large tomatoes, cut into ½-inch cubes
16 ounces Brie cheese, rind removed, torn into irregular pieces
1 cup fresh basil, in chiffonade
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1½ pounds linguini
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Combine tomatoes, Brie, basil, garlic, 1 cup olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper in a large serving bowl. Prepare at least 2 hours before serving and set aside, covered, at room temperature.
Bring 6 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and remaining salt. Add the linguini and boil under tender, but still firm, 8 to 10 minutes.
Drain pasta and immediately toss with the tomato sauce. Serve at once, passing the peppermill and grated Parmesan cheese. Serves 4 to 6.
[From the 1982 Silver Palette Cookbook]
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Roasted Carrots With Pine Nut Gremolata
Submitted by: Peggy
Recipe origin: USA
This recipe comes from the “Peggy’s Table” cookbook by Heritage Cookbook creator Peggy. Gremolata is a type of seasoning typically made of finely minced parsley, garlic, and lemon zest; in this case, orange rind is used instead.
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 pound trimmed small carrots
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts, chopped
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
Preheat oven to 450℃. Toss olive oil, salt and pepper with trimmed small carrots on a baking sheet. Bake at 450℃ for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 325℃ (keep pan in oven). Bake for 10 minutes more or until tender and beginning to brown.
Combine parsley, chives, chopped toasted pine nuts, grated orange rind and minced garlic. Add to carrots, add sherry vinegar and toss. Serves 2 to 4.
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Orange Pistachio Wild Rice Salad
Submitted by: Peggy
Recipe origin: USA
This recipe comes from the “Peggy’s Table” cookbook by Heritage Cookbook creator Peggy.
2/3 cup wild rice
2/3 cup wild brown rice (Lundberg Farms) or brown rice
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons chopped unsalted pistachios
2 oranges
Zest from one orange
10 large fresh basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
¼ cup minced red onion
⅓ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
¼ teaspoon salt
Combine the brown rice and wild rice and broth in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to a slow simmer and cook until the water has evaporated and rice is fully cooked, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
Toast pistachios in a small dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently; cool.
Grate the zest from one orange; set aside. Cut the top and bottom off of both oranges. Stand on end and remove the rest of the peel and white pith by cutting down the orange, following its curve with your knife. Cut between membrane and each segment; remove each segment. Repeat with the second orange. When the rice is cool, add the orange segments, the basil, onion, pistachios and orange zest and mix to incorporate.
To make the dressing, whisk together the vinegar, orange juice (from first zested orange), oil, mustard, honey and salt in a small bowl. Pour over the rice mixture and mix. (May not need all the dressing). The salad will keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container for a day or two. Serves 6.
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Avocado and Butter Lettuce Salad
Submitted by: Peggy
Recipe origin: USA
This recipe comes from the “Peggy’s Table” cookbook by Heritage Cookbook creator Peggy.
Butter lettuce
Avocados (½ – 1 per person)
Fresh chives, cut in about ¼-inch pieces
Lemon Vinaigrette
1 lemon, juiced
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, finely minced
2 cloves, garlic, finely minced
Kosher salt and pepper
Carefully trim the butter lettuce leaves off the head; leaves left whole. Rinse well and dry.
Combine dressing ingredients and mix well.
Toss butter lettuce leaves with dressing; place on large platter. Separately toss the avocado slices with dressing, then arrange on top of butter lettuce and sprinkle with chopped fresh chives.
OR
Toss lettuce with lemon vinaigrette. Arrange leaves on individual salad plates, starting with largest on the bottom. Slice or scoop avocados in pieces and toss with dressing; place a serving of avocado slices on center of butter lettuce leaves. Sprinkle with chopped fresh chives.
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Goat Cheese and Grape Crostini
Submitted by: Peggy
Recipe origin: USA
This recipe comes from the “Peggy’s Table” cookbook by Heritage Cookbook creator Peggy and is a great way to start a holiday meal.
1 sourdough baguette, cut on the diagonal into 16 slices
2 cups quartered seedless grapes (mix of colors)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces fresh goat cheese
Preheat oven to 375℃. Brush top of each bread slice with oil and sprinkle with pepper; arrange on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheet at least 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine grapes, lemon juice, honey, thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil. Spread each baguette slice with goat cheese and top with grape mixture. Serves 8.
October 15, 2024 | Posted in:
Apple Butter Pancakes
Submitted by: Kandi L.
Recipe origin: USA
This recipe comes from “Apple Butter Bonanza,” a cookbook created by Kandi to raise money for her town’s historical society in Front Royal, Virginia.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup apple butter
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg
Syrup and pecans for topping
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and nutmeg.
In a large bowl, stir together milk, apple butter, melted butter and egg.
Fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture until completely incorporated.
Ladle the batter onto a preheated skillet or griddle set at 325 degrees and cook the pancakes for 3-5 minutes on each side until deep golden brown.
Serve with melted butter, syrup and pecans on top. Enjoy!
September 12, 2024 | Posted in:
Karen’s Pickled Beets
Submitted by: Amy Mosher Berry
Recipe origin: Worcester, Massachusetts
How old is this recipe? Several generations old
Submitted by her daughter Amy, this recipe comes from the late Karen McGinnis’ “Easy Favorites Cookbook.” It includes an entire section on canning, which Karen loved so much that she launched “Kanning with Karen” in 2019 in order to teach others.
3 quarts peeled, cooked beets
2 cups sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons UNiodized salt
3 1/2 cups distilled vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
Wash and drain beets. Leave 2″ of stems. Cover with boiling water; cook until tender. Cool to peel beets. Combine all ingredients, except beets; simmer 15 minutes. Pack beets into hot jars. Remove cinnamon from brine. Bring liquid to boiling. Pour hot liquid over beets, leaving 1/4″ head space in jars. Process pints and quarts 30 minutes in water bath canner.
Yield: app. 6 pints
August 20, 2024 | Posted in:
Slow Cooker Apple Butter
Submitted by: Kandi L.
Recipe origin: USA
This recipe comes from “Apple Butter Bonanza,” a cookbook created by Kandi to raise money for her town’s historical society in Front Royal, Virginia. While traditional apple butter uses a 30-gallon copper cauldron and requires hours and hours of stirring, this slow cooker recipe is a much easier alternative.
INGREDIENTS
2-3 quarts unsweetened applesauce
1 cup apple cider (not apple juice)
2-3 cups sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Add all ingredients to the crockpot and stir.
Place a tea towel between the lid and the crock. This is to absorb condensation. (Be sure to fold the ends of the tea towel on top of the lid so it doesn’t touch the sides of the slow cooker.)
Cook on high for 8-10 hours, removing the lid and tea towel after 2 hours. Then cook without the lid for the remainder of the time. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn. Cook longer to make it thicker and darker in color.
Apple butter will be done when it is thick, sticking to a spoon when the spoon is turned upside down, and is dark in color. Enjoy!
July 24, 2024 | Posted in:
The Ultimate Guide to Making a Family Cookbook
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.